Home > Trip Reports > July 1, 2013, Mount Adams, SW Chutes

July 1, 2013, Mount Adams, SW Chutes

7/1/13
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3181
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Posted by jasmind on 7/2/13 4:44pm
July 1 (Happy Canada Day!) summit of Mount Adams and ski of the southwest chutes.

Conditions....

We used the winter route/Suksdorf Ridge as our ascent route. The snow starts around 6400 feet and once you are in snow it is mostly continuous for the remainder of the route. To beat the heat we departed the trailhead in the early morning hours and found that the snow had enough of a freeze and we were not punching through while walking; we elected to take a direct route on foot and donned the skis/skins once on the ridge....(if it was light out we probably would have skinned).

At about 7 am we were at the bottom of the climb up to Pikers. Skis were penetrating about 5 cms into the snow by this time and I don't think this snow had much of an overnight recovery (south facing aspect; weather at this time had turned overcast and the slope wasn't getting any direct sun). We did not use ski crampons/crampons although there were some icy patches of snow around the ribbon of rock that is in the middle of the slope just below the top out on this climb.

Unfortunately, we got pinned down by a thunderstorm just before reaching Pikers. We headed back down to wait it out, and waited for over an hour for it to pass and then headed back up. Tagged the summit and headed back over to the Southwest Chutes.

Timing on dropping in was a bit later than we had planned for (due to the weather) and we cautiously skied in to the larger, hourglass shaped chute @ 11:30 am. Snow was moist for the first 1000 feet - moist enough to sluff out the tracks as we were skiing, however it was still skiable and penetration was about 15 cms. The farther down we went the better (less moist) and more consolidated the snow felt. For this day and the hot temperature, I wouldn't have wanted to be on that slope any later.

Getting down to the Round the Mountain Trail was not too difficult. At the bottom of the moraines (where it is apparent you are leaving the basin and heading into the valley) we started traversing S - SE. When we found skiable snow we travelled down it in a southerly direction and once it ended we traversed SE until we found snow again. This worked well for us and we hit the Round the Mountain Trail in no time. Skis were on the back once on the trail. From where we joined it (sorry no UTM) the Round the Mountain Trail was mostly snow free back to the South Climb trail.

As far as the traverse out, below 7000 ft on that side of the mountain most of the ridges were snow free and I don't think a traverse could be made without taking off the skis.


Cheers..

Nice report.  I can see the whole thing in my mind.

Few shots from the day: 

Few more..

The sky in that first picture is amazing!

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july-1-2013-mount-adams-sw-chutes
jasmind
2013-07-02 23:44:25