July 1, 2012, Mt Adams, SW Chutes Corn!!!!!!

We started our trip a little late from Seattle, but we still thought we would be resting by 11:00 pm. But while registering for the climb at the ranger station, we could hear whiffs of Johnny Cash through the trees.  This required some investigation.  We found the source at the Trout Lake Country Inn where a live country band was playing.  This required even more investigation (and beer tasting) and it was 1:00 am before we got to Morrison Creek. A delayed morning start was in order.

The campground is totally snow free and so is the trail until about 5100 feet.  Stashed some beers and continued up through the trees.  We unfortunately drifted to far east and eventually exited the trees just west of the Cold Springs route.  Continued up in the mist, but soon broke out of the clouds.  By the time we reached the false summit, the wind was blowing strongly and the snow on the true summit looked pretty icy and choppy.

We entered the SW chutes with just a little ice for the first 100 V feet and then it was perfect corn.  The wind subsided and the the snow just got better.  At one point the corn seemed to be overcooked and about 4 inches deep  (we set off some very slow moving wet 3 inch sluffs that continued down for 1500 feet) and I thought this was the end of the good skiing, but remarkably it still skied great all the way to the bottom of the chute.  The snow from the bottom of the chute to the treeline firmed up and more great skiing all the way into the trees. 

Once below treeline, we picked our way through the trees trying to find the beer, but since we reentered at a different spot, this took awhile.  Finally 2 cold Pale Ales and a short walk back to the car.

Probably the best sustained spring skiing we have had - a guess a little beer and country music has it's benefits.

Thanks to FreeBird and Christoph Benells for some pretrip beta on the chutes and the route through the trees.