June 23, 2005, Mount Adams

My Dad and I had planned to ski the South climb route Wednesday, but the 30% chance of rain turned into 100%, and the clear Thursday forecast suddenly looked a lot better. We left Snoqualmie at 4:30 Wednesday afternoon and drove through Enumclaw, 410 through MRNP, & then on to Randall--then took the FS23 to Trout Lake. We pulled up to the Ranger Station just before 8pm. I thought this was pretty good time, and a beautiful drive.

We took some old dry 2x4's, and had a crackling fire going in seconds once we got to the South Climb trailhead. In the end it kept us up to midnight, and the 4:00am alarm sure came fast. We hiked up to approximately 7,500 feet, where we found continuous snow. My Dad's skins did not have full base coverage and he kept edging out, so he opted to boot it and I skinned. It was an amazing day with deep blue skies, and the Mount Hood and Saint Helens views kept us motivated. The latter was spouting steam through the day.

We made Piker's Peak/False Summit and decided we'd descend from there, seeing as we'd come to ski and our legs were starting to feel worked over. Besides, as we both rationalized, it is "a summit." A crew of 4 or so skiied off into the SW chutes, which must have been excellent, because when we headed back down the climbing route, we had outstanding Summer skiing conditions, smooth, fast, and soft. This was the case all the way back to about 8,000 feet. Only the last 500 feet or so was grabby.

All in all it was a perfect day on Mount Adams. After skiing the route car to car last month, though, I have to say that the hike in and out adds some time and shoulder pain. Come on October!

Look for photos this afternoon.