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Topic: 6/14, Mt. Adams, upper n. face nw ridge +sw chutes (Read 3605 times)
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danhelmstadter
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the weather turned out to be pretty good, given the dicey forecast. i left around 630 from the trailhead(wich is fully accessable) knowing that the waft of low clouds in the east would make for a latish thaw, the south route looked to be in pretty good shape,, a little bumpy, met some good people on the hike up, after the first or second "step" on the upper south spur route, the snow started to get really icy, with small developing pure ice sustrgi jetting out in curiously erratic directions. i noticed some old ski tracks which appeared to have carved through the icy/bumpy surface not at all impeeded by the seemingly knar conditions. As is got higher the size of the sustrgi increased, as well as the density, the surface which was not sustrugi had about an inch of icy/nievey crust,, i was hopeing the north face would hold some corn... i made my way over the summit and to the pinacle, and found myself walking over a array of ice/nive/sustrugi and various frozen crusts,, dissapointed, i waited with optimisim, took a nap, a little food etc.. and a hour or two? later i had to make a decision as the sun was getting low, and if i wanted to climb back up and do the sw chutes, i had to get moveing, or turn around. I decided to drop in and feel it out as i went,, the skiing was pretty bad with full on vibro chattering over the best of the surfaces, and hanous sustrugi jump turns or side slipping at its worst,, i thought it would soften as i got lower, but i was wrong,, as the face strarted to steepen, the snow did smooth out ,, but the nieve was still hard (leaveing no track), i stopped at the point where it got to about 45dg( about halfway down) and assesed the situation below,, i was feeling solid with my pedal/hop turns, but the slope steepend to 50dg below, with some 800' where the slope directly below ended in cliffs above the lower adams g., i was prepared to climb back up in such conditions,, and i decided to make some more turns feel htings out,, i readyied my axe to my backpack, checked my harness, and started truning,, as i crested a funky horizontal rib the snow steepend to about 50dg, and the nieve became incredibly hard, i didnt think it could get much harder that the nieve above,, but this was damn hard nieve,, i new that this was no place to be on this day,, and anchored my axe into the nieve,, the nieve was so hard i had to really hammer in my technical ice axe to get any kind of depth, i could not make any visible indentation in the nieve with multiple stomps with my skiis, in an atempt to stomp out a plattform. i side stepped up with double axes, to a point where a switched the skis for pons, and climbed towrds the pinnacle. back on the summit i clicked on the skis, and made towrds the sw chutes, skiing/sideslipping uglily down the hanous sustrugi, mixed with all kinds of ice and frozen knar slopes of the summit,, the top quater of the sw chute where better, a little crusty, then bueatiful untracked corn all the rest of the way!
i was definatly a little lucky,, lucky enough to walk away with some lessons, 1st dont be such a dumbass, 2nd climb the route your going to ski when conditions are questionable,, conditions are everything,, especially on the steeps.
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Jason_H.
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Wow, way to give it a go and glad that you are safe. I've learned over 4 or 5 skis of that route that it needs to be done when its 90 degrees in the lowlands and late in the day (like 4 o'clock). Over the next few weeks we should get a break like that.
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MW88888888
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Dan - how do you ski with those huge balls swinging around? BTW - I'm very impressed with your ski of Longs a while back - that east face stuff is sick.
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Pete A
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holy *&$%@! glad you're okay....
thanks for posting the conditions update....I'll keep my fingers crossed for a 90 degree heat wave in the next couple of weeks.
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« Last Edit: 06/15/07, 03:01 PM by Pete A »
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skykilo
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Conditions really are everything. Way to keep it together, Dan. The traditional approach is to hit Adams with a solid heat wave.
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Sam Avaiusini
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Ditto.
90+ degrees in the lowlands is key. Walking up the north ridge in trail shoes gives you plenty of time to scope out NFNWR and if it looks bad, you can always navigate the Adams Glacier or one of the lobes of the Lyman. It sounds like you have your head straight. NFNWR gets pretty tame on the upper 3rd, so it's easy to get comfortable and then find yourself on different (more firm) surfaces as the pitch rolls away beneath.
This is about where you want to start being careful...Photo: Bill Frans
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Sam Avaiusini
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philfort
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90+ degrees in the lowlands is key. Walking up the north ridge in trail shoes gives you plenty of time to scope out
What the hell do *you* know, mountain biker!! 
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pin!head
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Posts: 229
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Headed up....thinking a Fathers Day celebration on the SW Chutes...
fingers crossed for a little pow! Changing my tranceiver batteries as we speek.
...see you there. And thank you Dan for the Great Report!
Pin'
..Free admission to the Spring CornPow Rodeo, to the first 46 contestents.
PS. Always had "rodeo" in mind for Ginormous melted out Treewells...Never thought to apply the term to .....what you call Ginormous Sustrugi...
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Scotsman
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I got scared just reading your trip report! Fine effort and thanks for the update on the SW Chutes. I guess a lot of pople are waiting for that weather window but alas this coming weekend looks just as bad.
Welcome to the PNW, as the previous poster said, " youse got big balls".
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Pandora
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...i decided to make some more turns feel htings out,, i readyied my axe to my backpack, checked my harness, and started truning,, as i crested a funky horizontal rib the snow steepend to about 50dg, and the nieve became incredibly hard, i didnt think it could get much harder that the nieve above,, but this was damn hard nieve,, i new that this was no place to be on this day,, and anchored my axe into the nieve,, the nieve was so hard i had to really hammer in my technical ice axe to get any kind of depth, i could not make any visible indentation in the nieve with multiple stomps with my skiis, in an atempt to stomp out a plattform. i side stepped up with double axes, to a point where a switched the skis for pons...
It seems like most of Sky's descents involve these kinds of shenanigans. Hope the two of you are having fun and managing to scare the shit out of yourselves in this gorgeous sunshine.
and
Sam: Your picture is way too small. I can hardly tell that you're absolutely shredding NFNWR since you perfectly timed your trip to coincide with a 90+ degree lowland heat wave; not to mention you're dressed like you just sauntered off the cover of Ski Fashion magazine.
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