June 11, 2006, SW Chutes, Mt Adams

Andy, Armin, Scott and I continued our two day Mt Hood-Mt Adams trip and left Hood River Saturday afternoon after enjoying a relaxing meal at one of the town's many nice restaurants.  We hit the end of the road just below the Morrison Creek campground and settled in for the night.  Up at 4:20 AM and on the road by 5:00 AM, we walked and then skinned up the 3 or so miles to the trailhead.  We hit the weather window again and enjoyed nice cool temps for skinning.  There wasn't hardly a cloud in sight as we broke thru the trees and on to more open ground.  A steady and vigorous pace would be needed to time our decent, so we kept rest breaks to a minimum and proceeded past the Lunch counter, up the south face of Adams.  Armin and Andy were both able to skin all the way up and over the false summit-  I needed to remove the skis for the last 300 vf or so and boot up (need to work on technique). 

Armin and Andy continued on to the summit on a nearly windless day- unusual at 12 thousand feet but appreciated nonetheless.  A few marine layer clouds had formed lower down to the south and east, but up high, it was nothing but sunshine and blue skis.  Having done Mt Hood on Saturday, and I having submitted Mt Adams before (and having been 10 lbs over weight and not in the killer shape those two were in!),  I stayed back at the top of the SW chutes. 

Andy and Armin reached the summit in short order, and then skied down to the entrance of the chutes.  This was one of those weekends where it seems everything went right.  The snow had softened just enough to set a nice edge, but it didn't turn to mush at any point.  The chutes were in prime condition, and judging by the coverage, it should stay that way for sometime.  We skied many good turns and eventually hit the area where a high traverse led us over to a notch in the lower ridge.  By traversing high and to the left, we managed to keep the uphill left-traversing sections to a minimum.  Eventually we hit the road and booted 3 miles back to the truck.   At 7800 vf for Andy and Armin, and with an extra 6 miles of walking tacked on, it was a long day for sure but worth every second.

Note on road closures-  the FS road that shaves off several dozens of miles back to Seattle is still closed.  A local told us there's still 3 feet of snow blocking the road and it'll likely be a while till it's open.  So for now, I-84 to Hood River is the best choice.