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Volcano: Part 2

Mt. Adams

By Adventures Not Vacations

September 12^th, 2016

Let's Do Lunch

After our first successful ski summit, we were itching for another. The obvious next choice was the 2nd tallest mountain in the state of Washington, Mt. Adams. Unlike Mount St. Helens, permits aren’t limited so all we needed was a good weather window. After several weeks of planned trips ended by clouds and rain, we finally got a good weekend just before the 4th of July.

Most people climb Mt. Adams in two days, with a camp at what is called the Lunch Counter. The Lunch Counter is a large flat area about halfway up the mountain. There are dozens of campsites, marked by large rock walls people have built to block the wind. This is what we decided to do too.

After waking up early for the long drive to Trout Lake, where we would pick up our Cascade Volcano Passes, we made our way to the trailhead. The road up the mountain was steep and narrow, with almost no room to pass. Encounters with oncoming cars were… interesting. The parking lot is on the site of a former forest fire and you really just need to find a random place to park in between the downed trees. We found our spot and readied our gear. On Mount St. Helens we just had day packs. On Adams, we would need overnight gear.

For the first hour and a half, we hiked with tents, sleeping bags, skis, and boots on our backs. When we finally hit the snow line, we put on our skis and welcomed the relief that came with getting the weight off our shoulders. Several hours later though, that weight felt as heavy as ever.

One particular section of snow was too steep to climb with skins. It was the last steep section before the Lunch Counter and there was a steep bootpack ladder built up to the top of the ridge. It looked like you could continue skinning below the ridge and head up another, less steep, section to make it to the top. Everyone in my group took off their skis and bootpacked up to the ridge. I decided to skin on, hoping to find an easier way up. Half an hour later, I realized my mistake. The steep icy snow was doable with skins and ski crampons, but it was a lot more work than I bargained for.

After we all made it to the top of the ridge, we continued the trudge up to the lunch counter. Soon after setting up camp, the sun began to set and we saw some of the best views I’ve ever seen. There were amazing views of Mt. Hood and Mount St. Helens. As the sun set, you could see the lights in nearby Hood River and Portland begin to twinkle on. We ate dinner and went to bed, ready to get an early start for the summit.

Summit day

Our plan was to wake up early and summit, but when we got out of our tent just before sunrise, the snow was hard and icy. Not ideal for skinning. We got back into our tents and tried to rest a little bit longer. That high up on the mountain, the wind was relentless and nobody really got much sleep.

Eventually, the sun was coming out and the snow began to soften. It was still hard, but we hoped it would be soft for our descent. The climb on day 2 started much better. We had a lot less weight on our backs and the grade was pretty gentle. We skinned up to the base of Piker’s Peak, a false summit of the mountain.

At the base of Piker’s Peak, the climb got steep again. We did our best on our skins and crampons, but eventually took off our skis, strapped them to our backs, and continued on foot. It was slow going, but there was a good bootpack set from the hundreds of other climbers that had come before us.

After what felt like an eternity, we crested the top of Piker’s Peak only to be greeted by the real summit, another hour and a half away. We took a break in the rocks near the summit while we waited for our everyone in the group to make it to the top. After some snacks, we continued on towards the summit.

There is a large saddle between the false and true summits. We welcomed the easy skinning, but it was demoralizing to drop down after all the work we did to get to the top. Luckily, after crossing the saddle, the last steep climb before the summit went quickly.

The top of the mountain was windy and cold, but the skies were clear and we could see for miles. In one direction, you could see the Cascades stretching out towards Canada. In another, you could see the deserts of Eastern Washington. We posed for pictures, took a quick drink from our Flabongo and started the ski down.

The ski down started off icy, with lots of sun cups making for a bumpy ride. As we got lower on the mountain, the ice turned to slush and we had some fine summer turns on huge open snowfields. It made carrying our skis all the way up totally worth it.