Home > Trip Reports > July 21 and 22, Adams

July 21 and 22, Adams

7/21/14
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4853
8
Posted by Jonathan_S. on 7/24/14 9:27am
After weeks of watching the warm dry weather since my late June PNW trip, suddenly the wx fx took a turn for the worse during my planned trip this week.

SW incremental price to fly out a day earlier for the only perfectly clear slot?
A lot!
Worth it?
Yes!





Excellent snow everywhere - well, except for the summit of course, but that is almost always the case.

Key stats:
- Total vertical = 10,388'
- % skied = ~90%
- Miles = 18.73
- Gu packets consumed = 10 (plus 4 Odwalla bars)
- Water consumed = not enough
- Gray wolf sightings = 0
- Beretta Px4 Storm sightings = 0


Summit selfie with Rainier in the background:






Looking back up at my summit tracks (far left) - about a third of this actually skied quite well, about a third of it skied like it looked, and the other third skied ... even worse:


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pvqueYfG56Y/U85sEXqAqNI/AAAAAAAAaq0/eagiH8b9BMo/w1044-h461-no/20140721_145924.jpg" />



Ready to ski over 3,700' vertical in the SW Chutes:






Semi-successful selfie attempt with SW Chutes:






From the base of the SW Chutes, skinned back up my €œNW Passage€ (well, actually trending to the NE) to rejoin Lunch Counter, with the goal of skinning back up to the Piker€™s Peak false summit.

Unfortunately, given my not-quite-alpine start of after ten o€™clock, and given some thin clouds, at ~10,000' elevation the snow was just starting to firm up.

Deviated from the main South Climb route after awhile to find an entirely untouched snowfield down to ~8,460' then skinned back up to ~9,540' where once again the snow was starting to firm back up given the late hour.

Even the main Lunch Counter snowfield skied very well, with such wonderful wide-open expanses:






Maxed out the Crescent [not-really-a] Glacier, played connect-the-snow-ribbons for awhile, then finally rejoined the dry hiking trail, with some bonus views of Mount Hood catching the evening sun:


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-79pBOjBkM3Q/U85tvQyZsnI/AAAAAAAAarU/1VyJIEi5QZU/w1044-h384-no/20140721_191328.jpg" />






Hustled down back to town so that I could repack quickly and get some [insufficient] sleep before waking the next morning so that we could take advantage of the relatively dry slot in the wx fx ... or alternatively, sit at our respective laptops in my motel room, trying to get some work done while obsessively checking the radar map!

Eventually the radar map showed the rain moving out.
But as I suspected, the lack of rain was nevertheless accompanied by a lack of visibility:


https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Y9poq8XqyrhKXMJxvbozISpF-oQw1NkHRAGjdbaGYGg=w1044-h473-no" />



I wasn€™t worried about skiing safety given that the terrain is all fairly mellow on the South Climb route.
But we were obviously at high risk for being stalked by packs of predatory gray wolves.
So we turned around after a little over 4k vert.

Light rain started up after we maxed out the lower Crescent [not-really-a] Glacier.
But it stopped shortly after we played connect-the-snow-ribbons and transitioned to hiking.

Dual selfie with the clearing valley in the background:






From the drive down, looking back up at the mountain€™s cloud deck :


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kREJuT-IWKY/U88lSTZHQMI/AAAAAAAAatA/e7EfNhF9es8/w1043-h426-no/20140722_163230.jpg" />



While driving back from dinner (burger at the Station Café of course), saw that all the campers (counted about 15 heading up during our short tour) were finally enjoying some clearing (before being subjected to utter misery overnight and then the following day):


Top of the mountain got frosted with fresh this past wed.

Thanks for making the trip out, Jonathan,
Had we known in advance that you were coming we would have dialed in a little better weather for your visit :)

author=Patarero link=topic=32103.msg134926#msg134926 date=1406318030]
Top of the mountain got frosted with fresh this past wed.


Hood on Thursday morning had overnight freshies from the base of the Palmer on up.
(Although above the mid-station the fresh snow had been blown around a lot, especially given the smoothly groomed surface.)
So Adams should also have benefited from that.
(Or are you talking about Wednesday of the prior week?  If so, then would certainly explain why conditions were so nice on Monday.)


author=ron j link=topic=32103.msg134929#msg134929 date=1406325328]
Thanks for making the trip out, Jonathan,
Had we known in advance that you were coming we would have dialed in a little better weather for your visit :)


I like to think of it as how my visit purged the system of all the rain for you, restoring this wondering weather today:



BTW Ron, this summer marks the 15th anniversary of when I tagged along with you and Jeanette on the Muir Snowfield -- the weather was horrible, the suncups were horrible, but after that tour, I was hooked, so I have you to thank!

author=Jonathan_S. link=topic=32103.msg134931#msg134931 date=1406331887]
BTW Ron, this summer marks the 15th anniversary of when I tagged along with you and Jeanette on the Muir Snowfield -- the weather was horrible, the suncups were horrible, but after that tour, I was hooked, so I have you to thank!


Thanks for remembering, Jonathan. You're welcome.

Didn't I break a binding on that trip?
But if my geriatric, stroke feebled brain can recall, it was the Lower Paradise Gl we were on not the Muir Snowfield.  But then how would you know... as I recall it was your first time on the mountain and we were in a white-out for most of the day. :)

And BTW, If we had known you were coming 15 years ago we would have dialed in better weather for your visit. :)

Good times  ;D

Miserable weather August 15 with you and Jeanette on Muir.
Then perfect weather with you on August 22 when your binding broke.

(I started keeping track of my ski days back in 1976 when our elementary school class was studying graphing...)

author=Jonathan_S. link=topic=32103.msg134935#msg134935 date=1406337678]
Miserable weather August 15 with you and Jeanette on Muir.
Then perfect weather with you on August 22 when your binding broke.

AHA. So I was RIGHT!
My stroke feebled brain did fail me  ::)
I forgot we did two weekends in a row!!
Must have been because I promised you good weather if you would hang around another week eh? :)


Jonathan, Wow, has it been 15 years since our bumping into each other in the Paradise parking lot?  I certainly remember that miserable day, but somehow we seemed to make the lemonade out of the lemons ;).  Looking at the photos above lots of things have certainly changed in those "few" years, skis, clothing, and us.  Time flies when your having fun.  Nice to read your report and see your still out having a good time. 

Yes, miserable weather, but still one of my favorite tours ever!
As Ron remarked either that day or another time, the higher you get on the mountain, the friendlier the people get.
Of course, the two of you were friendly right there in the parking lot, but still, somehow that summarizes one of my favorite aspects of that tour, and many others too.

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Jonathan_S.
2014-07-24 16:27:33