July 19, 2003, Mt. Adams SW Chutes

What a ski! Almost 5000 ft vertical on continuous snow that's overall very good. We entered the chutes at about 2:20 pm. The top 2000-ft was smooth corn - perfect. The last 1000-ft or so of the (3000-ft) 30 degree chute was very soft, sun cupped and runneled (deep in parts). The lower portion of runs, below the SW Chute basin was nice corn, although it was sun cupped, it was more like corn mogul skiing. We bushwacked back to camp at 6600-ft using a GPS.

There were lot's of snowboarders, and skiiers on the south climb route which was really surprising considering how bad the ski down looked. The south climb route is not smooth at all and has large sun cups and runnels everywhere. I wouldn't recommend skiing the south climb this time of year. In fact, we met 3 other telemarkers (the only others skiing the SW Chutes) who had experience in the area, and mentioned that the south climb ski down usually isn't very good past memorial day.