Home > Trip Reports > May 27, 2017, Mt Adams in the sun

May 27, 2017, Mt Adams in the sun

5/27/17
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3622
7
Posted by kthack on 5/30/17 10:36am
Spencer and I skied Mt Adams off the summit Saturday May 25th. It was my first time up there, Spencer's been there plenty. Had an adventure getting there - turns out State Route 23 near Mt St Helens is not passable currently. We did not think to check this, and Google Maps was unaware. That combined with Memorial Day weekend traffic lead to a 10 hr drive from Seattle to the trailhead.

After rolling up to the very crowded trailhead at 2:30AM, we woke up at 5ish and left the car just after 6.  There was patchy snow all the way to the trailhead at ~4000 ft but we walked for about a half mile with skis on our backs before skinning.

We didn't dawdle on the way up, stopping for just a few minutes every hour for food and water. We reached the lunch counter around 9:30, and the false summit just after noon. At the false summit we chatted with another group from Seattle who was going to turn down there and ski the southwest chutes - probably a good call from a skiing perspective, as it was getting HOT and quickly turning to mush down lower. We continued on, and reached the summit around 2PM.

After a few pictures and a break at the summit, we skied back down and into the southwest chutes. The chutes skied great - smooth, sustained corn, but quickly getting sticky at the bottom. We then traversed out following tracks (presumably from the other group) and were able to link back up with the uptrack and ski all the way down to snowline with only a few minor sidestepping/skating sessions. We got back to the car just after 3:30 to beers and flip flops.

Trailhead was crowded - we lucked out getting a parking spot where we did. High clearance/4WD recommended, although we did see a couple Subaru imprezas out there. It was memorial day weekend, so not surprising.

Definitely a big day, but tons of fun. Were able to skin from snowline all the way to the summit, no booting or ski crampons required (although plenty of others were booting, not sure which was easier. We covered a lot more distance on the skintrack). All in all a great day in the mountains, and seems like we have plenty of snow left for a long volcano season.
What altitude was snow line? Or alternately, how many miles did you walk on road before reaching the summer TH?

A friend skied it this past weekend and said they parked at the Morrison creek campground

Kthack, nice to meet you guys up there!  We were the group of 3 that you chatted with at the entrance to the chutes! Corn o'clock in the SW Chutes definitely was noon!  We spoke with a ranger on saturday afternoon by our car and he shared some beta with us on a nice exit directly to the Morrison Creek TH from the chutes, the traversing track that we set (that I assume you guys followed) worked ok, but next time we do this in April/May we'll try to take it all the way to Morrison Creek to avoid the extra miles heading towards Cold Creek from the Chutes.  Cheers to a great day of skiing!

cascadekid - We parked at Morrison creek campground as well. My watch said ~4000 ft give or take. The road was undriveable from there for most (we did see a jeep on the road higher up, but he had driven through ~2ft deep off camber slush and over at least one 12 in diameter fallen tree). We walked probably a half mile uphill before putting on the skis.

Midwest2Northwest - great to meet you up there as well! Yes I believe we did follow your traverse out, thanks for that. Good to know there's another option for next time, cheers to you too!

anyone willing to relay the beta for the direct exit to morrison ck CG? I have always traversed back to the Crescent "glacier" area and had a nice little run from there down to cold springs.

topo and looking at creek, just veer east at bottom of chutes like normal but instead of traverse keep dropping and make sure to stay on west side of the creek? anything more?

thanks

author=water link=topic=38569.msg156143#msg156143 date=1496439148]
anyone willing to relay the beta for the direct exit to morrison ck CG? ... topo and looking at creek, just veer east at bottom of chutes like normal but instead of traverse keep dropping and make sure to stay on west side of the creek? anything more?

thanks


Hey Water: GPS. ;)
Seriously I've been told that when we did 7 miles of road just to get to Cold Springs (and we even cut off the last loooong switchback and climbed direct to Cold Springs!) These guys told us they *always* do Adams before the road is melted up to Morrison just for this purpose. I was just planning on skiing to the bottom of the chutes and then taking the path of least resistance, watching my GPS... the guys said it was really straightforward with a LOT more skiing!! Cheers! (Let's plan it for next spring when you can take a break!!)

author=water link=topic=38569.msg156143#msg156143 date=1496439148]
anyone willing to relay the beta for the direct exit to morrison ck CG? I have always traversed back to the Crescent "glacier" area and had a nice little run from there down to cold springs.

topo and looking at creek, just veer east at bottom of chutes like normal but instead of traverse keep dropping and make sure to stay on west side of the creek? anything more?

thanks


water - the beta we were given is to traverse to the bowl that is at the head of morrison creek, you can see this on your topo if you just follow morrison creek up the mountain from the MC TH.  If you ski down the sw chutes and follow the eventual slightly south trending fall line into the valley (below the chutes) it will dump you out just east of the prominent bowl that is the start of Morrison Creek. (~7000 FT).  From here continue a slight SE traverse until you get to Morrison Creek at the junction with the around the mountain trail and then from here you can descend along the creek which takes you right out to the Morrison Creek TH.  According to the ranger we spoke with, you would only want to try this on a high snow year in April - Mid May. (snow can get very 'punchy' in this area once it becomes thin.  On our recent trip we just continued the SE traverse along the around the mountain trail and eventually connected it back to the road just below Cold Creek, that option was relatively pain free as well.  hope that helps!

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may-27-2017-mt-adams-in-the-sun
kthack
2017-05-30 17:36:25