Home > Trip Reports > April 23-24, 2005, Mt. Adams

April 23-24, 2005, Mt. Adams

4/23/05
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3519
6
Posted by jletts on 4/26/05 11:17pm
Our group had high hopes of climbing Adams' south route and decending on boards, but the weather got the best of us. I pretty much knew the conditions would be bad for climbing, but I had hoped it would push through earlier. The road up to Adams is still pretty bad in places. I ended up parking about 1 mile from the Road 500 cutoff. There is little chance of making it much farther unless you drive a tank  ;D (I have a Jeep and wisely gave up early). On the hike in I passed two trucks stuck and mostly buried in snow on Road 500 about half-way to the south trailhead. They won't be melting out for another couple weeks. Fog was bad and visibility was down to about 100 feet at times. We opted out of climbing higher that timberline in a whiteout and set up camp. We passed a few people on the way in who had done the same the night before. That evening the weather cleared and I got a spectacular view of Adams in a full moon. I figured since we weren't going to climb (more weather moving in for the morning) we might as well go boarding. So we spent the next few hours (from about 11pm-2am) hiking up to about the 7,500 foot point and riding back to camp. We did a few shorter yo-yos and surprisingly the snow was very soft, even that late at night. It had been raining most of the day, then snowed a few of inches on top, so it was an interesting but soft snow combo. It didn't freeze up until we went to bed. A great outing and I'm not at all dissapointed about missing the summit. I know I'll be back this summer.
On the hike in I passed two trucks stuck and mostly buried in snow on Road 500 about half-way to the south trailhead. They won't be melting out for another couple weeks.


Thanks for the report, I'm glad it cleared up enough for you to do a moonlight ski.

Do you mean to say those trucks got stuck before the last major snowstorms buried them? How badly are they blocking the road, in case the owners don't arrive promptly to remove them as the road melts out?


Do you mean to say those trucks got stuck before the last major snowstorms buried them? How badly are they blocking the road, in case the owners don't arrive promptly to remove them as the road melts out?


Here's my contribution to inbreeding between web sites:


Thanks Mark. I should look at cc.com more often, although any "inbreeding between web sites" would likely result in catching some horrible STD.

If that Blazer has been there since before March 22, it must have gotten buried 3-4 ft deep over the next few weeks. Although it looks partly melted out again in the second small photo attached to that thread. It's too bad it got vandalized and all his remaining stuff probably stolen.


I was up there with some friends as well this past weekend. The trucks in question didn't appear to be blocking the road.   :)

As you could tell by that photo, the Blazer is not really blocking the road. But it does appear to have been buried much deeper than depicted on Amar's picture, though it was in the process of melting out. Someone had busted out the back window but many items in the truck were untouched (copy of freedom of the hills, other books on climbing and backpacking, etc.). I doubt that a climber or skier played a part in breaking into the Blazer. As we know, there are others up there who prefer to enjoy the solitude of the wilderness from the back of their "noise machine" rather than by hiking or skiing. I was almost run down twice while hiking up the trail.

My point in bringing up the Blazer is that the snow on the road is still very soft, wet, and deep in places. So watch it if you decide to drive up Road 500. Also as of the 24th, snowshoes would make things a lot easier. Postholing was a problem without them. I bet that Road 500 will be melted out by the middle of May at this rate.

oops, I mean Mark's picture.   ;D

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2005-04-27 06:17:23