April 28-30 Mt Adams Southern Face
4/15/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2282
0
On April 28th we drove on the Mt Adams access road as far as the road would allow but the snow became too deep around 3500 ft (1.5 miles into the 8 mile road) So we decided to camp there overnight. The next mourning we got up around 7 AM and started hiking up around 8 am. The hike up the access road was about 6.5 miles of deep snowpack ranging from a few inches to at least a few feet above around 5,00 feet. The road wasn't too bad other then the fact that we got passed by about ten snowmobiles throughout the day. Around 1 PM me finally made it to alpine at the base of the Mountain and decided to push toward the Lunch Counter (9100 ft). So we stared heading towards Shuksendorf ridge when around 4:00 pm we got hit by a nasty storm that left us with No visibility and what felt like 100 MPH winds ( Ive never felt wind so strong ). So we decided it was way too dangerous to go up any higher and that we needed to get find some sort of shelter before it was dark so we found a small mound on the side of a ridge ( 7,200 ft) that somewhat blocked the wind and dug into it making six foot walls on all four sides big enough to put our tents up and call it a day. After a miserable night of freezing temperatures and wet gear we started moving around 7AM to find that it was beautiful blue Sky's with great views of Hood St Helens and the Southern Cascades. We started up the ridge around 8 AM and pushed up to the lunch counter around 1pm we took a rest to boil some water and eat some food. By this time half of our group was completely exhausted and not willing to go that much farther but after alittle bit of persuasion we agreed that we would turn around at 3:30. So realizing that we didn't have much time my friend Dan and I started hiking straight up towards the False summit. We were at the base of the final mound when we noticed the other half of our group ride down to the lunch Counter we were at around 11,000 feet and in a extra 45 minutes we would be at the summit but we were forced to turn around and start heading back . So I put my split board into snowboard mode and got ready to drop a 8,500 Vert run. The first 2000 vert hadn't softened up too much but was still sinkable enough to dig in a edge but the next 3,500 vert was perfect softened corn snow that was as good as it gets for summer skiing ( untouched as far as the eyes could see) know the last 3000 was defiantly wet and slushy but the packed down snow from the snowmobiles made it possible to get speed going over all the humps they had left in the snow. As a snowboarder I had to use poles for the last stretch but it was all downhill except for a spot in the middle that was flat and alittle bit uphill. After that though it was all down hill untill the snow turned to patches around 3'800 feet. All in all it was a great hike but Id give it another month to let the snow in the road melt down quite a bit more, but there is nothing like having a mountain all to yourself.
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