June 16, 2001, Mt. Adams

Went down Friday night getting to the trailhead at about 11:00. We got up at 5:30, and started up the hill a little after 6:00. The snow on the way up was pretty solid, so we only used our skins for 1,000 ft of the climb. The original plan was to ski the SW chute, but ditched that idea when we saw a climber going up the last section front pointing and using two ice tools. We started down after 3:00, and it still hadn't softened up much. The section from the summit to the false summit wasn't too bad, but then again hard snow to get an edge in. The very top section below the false summit was very dicey due to the hard icy snow and the steep pitch. The lower half of that was challenging, but we made it work. Below lunchcounter we finally found some corn to reward us.

Don Thompson