May 27-29, 2005, Mt Adams
5/27/05
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2442
0
With the ever changing forcast I decided to take a chance on Adams. The call of mostly cloudy and precip with chance of thunder storms can possilby change to sun. So I left Thursday around 4:20pm and took FS-23 down. Lack of cars made the paved section fun and the gravel section a rally course. Once back on the paved spent most the time honking my horn and blasting Metallica to keep the deer from even thinking about doing a crazy ivan in front of me. The last mile before Cold Springs had some foot deep muddy ruts to play in. Pulled into camp around 9pm. Spots were limited near the trailhead due to snow. Couldn't park past the first bathroom. Only counted 6 other vehicles. Spoke with 2 climbers who spread the good news of the forcast changing for the better. Hell yeah!
Woke around 6am to the sounds of people leaving. Noticed Chris and Rene camped few cars down. Wasted no time waking them and soon learned that they pulled in around 1:30am. Okay there is some time to kill. After 10am we were hiking under sunny blue skies. I was able to skin from 6,100ft on continuous snow. http://client.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358667673sxvzgZ Snow was soft and patchy from 6,000ft. Well instead of packing their pistols, Chris and Rene decided to carry clown skies. They look like pocket rockets cut in half with twin tips for jibbing. Actually they are called blades. I think weight had everything to do with that decision. So while they were confined to the boot track I ventured and within doing so I lost my 16oz water bottle with blue Northwest Snowboard sticker and silver non-locking beaner. Glad to still have a 32oz in the pack. Soon I arrived into Cresent Glacier basin. Had a hard time not setting up camp here and lapping this area. There was a couple camping in the shrubbery atop the last roll before the boot tracks that gain the ridge. About halfway up I realized that I could have skinned around the cone and up what appeared to be a 30 degree ramp. But time of day (around 1pm), warm temps (I felt like a Salvador Dali painting), and the fact that the ramp was directly below where the gapers open made me think otherwise. Also aiding in the decision was the snow. Snow stability varied in areas. Snow that was clean bonded significantly better than the dirty graup. Dirty stuff slid off easily with each pole plant.
Once on the ridge it was windy enough for all to throw on an extra layer until we were off it. This is where I started skinning again. Not too long after I arrived at Lunch Counters and staked a campsite. While I waited for Chirs and Rene I made the mistake of tearing into a guinne, http://client.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358667683HjIpuJ which slowly contributed to my inability to move. Thus rendering me otherwise useless. By the time my friends arrived I was already in a guinne/food endosed coma. After deciding that this was our site we setup shop. Well I sure as hell wasn't moving! After all was set we chatted but not too long. We had entertainment for the evening and dinner involving a party of 5 staying in a backyard tent with meshing. We watched them try and cover up the meshing with anything and everything in their possession. It was windy and chilly as I climbed into the warmth of my bivy. http://client.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358667765XxgjFa
The next day I woke to sun. After a hearty breakfast of granola, bagels and cream cheese we got our gear together and left camp early after 10am. The hike up Pikers went smooth with perfectly placed steps already kicked in. Only post holed a few times about 500ft from the top. By 1pm I had reached the top and used my board for a bench while marinating in the sun. After an hour nap I took a short stroll to peek at the SW chutes. By this time Chris and Rene were cresting the false summit. They continued towards the summit while I decided to drop the chute. Here's a pic just about the time the earth drops 3,950ft below you. http://community.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358667613BuxPdJ Only counted a 6 tracks going down the chute at 2:30pm. The harvest was on like tron! Only crossed a few tracks up top while traversing boarders right for more untracked. Snow varied in consistency and depth. Started out couple inches of corn on top smooth for a while and eventually becoming boot deep cream. No major instability issues thus far. Just the minor sluff action from turns. Around 3,000ft into the descent the snow started to get sticky-icky but the steep slope angle offered assistance. I veered to the left of the ridge that starts at the bottom of the chute and proceeded to straight line high left until 7,600ft. There was a slide that ran about 50ft wide and 500ft plus along the cliff band far boarders left. Anyways I bumped into another splitter and skier at this point. We exchanged greetings and were off. After realizing that I had forgotten my skins back at Lunch Counters going any further would just prolong the torture of post-holing. Oh the horror. So instead I consulted the topo and altimeter and found a west facing slope that led back up to the ridge that I would ultimately have to gain again if I would have descended any further. Plus the snow conditions were pretty sticky on sun exposed slopes that lacked angle.
The hump out went just like any other. Gotta love how your fav songs provide just the right amount of motivation to keep things moving. First pitch was proly 700ft or so and started at 30 degrees and reaching near the 40's up top. http://community.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358683158UTwkIi Once on top there was some terrain to navigate. Wasn't going to be as direct as I had thought. The next 300ft or so was spent between scrambling on rocks and post-holing carefully. http://community.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358683187aGnlex After 2 hours I had finally gained the ridge I needed. This is where I really needed the skins. A 400ft gain but stretched out about a mile. Eventually I dragged myself back to camp a bit after 5pm. A guiness never tasted so good! After our meals, Chris, Rene, and myself just lounged around watching the sun's shadow steal our light away. Also stared at alot of cool cloud formations. This evening was a bit more windy then the previous. As a result we soon found ourselves in our shelters of choice.
Next morning I woke to sun once again. However on this Sunday morning there was a cloud deck around 5,000-6,000ft. By 9am we had our gear packed up and ready to ride. The surface had a fine crust to it that seemed to be noticed by the skiers more than boarders. It carved fast. Within no time we were dropping into the Cresent Glacier. That cloud deck we woke to seemed to be hovering around the northwest side and not the immediate south. Cool. Snow was so soft that I watched Chris do a tail ride to ass plant without changing the expression on his face. Only 9am and here I was force feeding corn for breakfast. I was able to pick my way down to 6,000ft and make mile or so hike out. It only took an hour from Lunch Counters to ride to our cars. Good times.
Poor quality pics due to disposable camera but more at http://community.webshots.com/user/snoslut
Woke around 6am to the sounds of people leaving. Noticed Chris and Rene camped few cars down. Wasted no time waking them and soon learned that they pulled in around 1:30am. Okay there is some time to kill. After 10am we were hiking under sunny blue skies. I was able to skin from 6,100ft on continuous snow. http://client.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358667673sxvzgZ Snow was soft and patchy from 6,000ft. Well instead of packing their pistols, Chris and Rene decided to carry clown skies. They look like pocket rockets cut in half with twin tips for jibbing. Actually they are called blades. I think weight had everything to do with that decision. So while they were confined to the boot track I ventured and within doing so I lost my 16oz water bottle with blue Northwest Snowboard sticker and silver non-locking beaner. Glad to still have a 32oz in the pack. Soon I arrived into Cresent Glacier basin. Had a hard time not setting up camp here and lapping this area. There was a couple camping in the shrubbery atop the last roll before the boot tracks that gain the ridge. About halfway up I realized that I could have skinned around the cone and up what appeared to be a 30 degree ramp. But time of day (around 1pm), warm temps (I felt like a Salvador Dali painting), and the fact that the ramp was directly below where the gapers open made me think otherwise. Also aiding in the decision was the snow. Snow stability varied in areas. Snow that was clean bonded significantly better than the dirty graup. Dirty stuff slid off easily with each pole plant.
Once on the ridge it was windy enough for all to throw on an extra layer until we were off it. This is where I started skinning again. Not too long after I arrived at Lunch Counters and staked a campsite. While I waited for Chirs and Rene I made the mistake of tearing into a guinne, http://client.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358667683HjIpuJ which slowly contributed to my inability to move. Thus rendering me otherwise useless. By the time my friends arrived I was already in a guinne/food endosed coma. After deciding that this was our site we setup shop. Well I sure as hell wasn't moving! After all was set we chatted but not too long. We had entertainment for the evening and dinner involving a party of 5 staying in a backyard tent with meshing. We watched them try and cover up the meshing with anything and everything in their possession. It was windy and chilly as I climbed into the warmth of my bivy. http://client.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358667765XxgjFa
The next day I woke to sun. After a hearty breakfast of granola, bagels and cream cheese we got our gear together and left camp early after 10am. The hike up Pikers went smooth with perfectly placed steps already kicked in. Only post holed a few times about 500ft from the top. By 1pm I had reached the top and used my board for a bench while marinating in the sun. After an hour nap I took a short stroll to peek at the SW chutes. By this time Chris and Rene were cresting the false summit. They continued towards the summit while I decided to drop the chute. Here's a pic just about the time the earth drops 3,950ft below you. http://community.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358667613BuxPdJ Only counted a 6 tracks going down the chute at 2:30pm. The harvest was on like tron! Only crossed a few tracks up top while traversing boarders right for more untracked. Snow varied in consistency and depth. Started out couple inches of corn on top smooth for a while and eventually becoming boot deep cream. No major instability issues thus far. Just the minor sluff action from turns. Around 3,000ft into the descent the snow started to get sticky-icky but the steep slope angle offered assistance. I veered to the left of the ridge that starts at the bottom of the chute and proceeded to straight line high left until 7,600ft. There was a slide that ran about 50ft wide and 500ft plus along the cliff band far boarders left. Anyways I bumped into another splitter and skier at this point. We exchanged greetings and were off. After realizing that I had forgotten my skins back at Lunch Counters going any further would just prolong the torture of post-holing. Oh the horror. So instead I consulted the topo and altimeter and found a west facing slope that led back up to the ridge that I would ultimately have to gain again if I would have descended any further. Plus the snow conditions were pretty sticky on sun exposed slopes that lacked angle.
The hump out went just like any other. Gotta love how your fav songs provide just the right amount of motivation to keep things moving. First pitch was proly 700ft or so and started at 30 degrees and reaching near the 40's up top. http://community.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358683158UTwkIi Once on top there was some terrain to navigate. Wasn't going to be as direct as I had thought. The next 300ft or so was spent between scrambling on rocks and post-holing carefully. http://community.webshots.com/photo/358660490/358683187aGnlex After 2 hours I had finally gained the ridge I needed. This is where I really needed the skins. A 400ft gain but stretched out about a mile. Eventually I dragged myself back to camp a bit after 5pm. A guiness never tasted so good! After our meals, Chris, Rene, and myself just lounged around watching the sun's shadow steal our light away. Also stared at alot of cool cloud formations. This evening was a bit more windy then the previous. As a result we soon found ourselves in our shelters of choice.
Next morning I woke to sun once again. However on this Sunday morning there was a cloud deck around 5,000-6,000ft. By 9am we had our gear packed up and ready to ride. The surface had a fine crust to it that seemed to be noticed by the skiers more than boarders. It carved fast. Within no time we were dropping into the Cresent Glacier. That cloud deck we woke to seemed to be hovering around the northwest side and not the immediate south. Cool. Snow was so soft that I watched Chris do a tail ride to ass plant without changing the expression on his face. Only 9am and here I was force feeding corn for breakfast. I was able to pick my way down to 6,000ft and make mile or so hike out. It only took an hour from Lunch Counters to ride to our cars. Good times.
Poor quality pics due to disposable camera but more at http://community.webshots.com/user/snoslut
Reply to this TR
Please login first: