Week 50 Aug.14 - Mt. Adams

Total Distance: Approximately 14 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 6700 ft.
Time: 5:00 am - 6:00 pm
Weather: Mostly sunny, warm at low elevation, windy and cold, at times, above 9000 ft.

A good Seattle friend and I have been talking about climbing mountains forever.  Well, not forever, but for the last 28 weeks at least.  He was my friend on the Week 22 hike to Snow Lake off I-90.  He has climbed a few peaks, and he and I are creating some big commitments to climb some big mountains, but before any of that can happen we need to see if I can climb.  He sent me a Facebook message a couple weeks ago about climbing Mt. Adams this weekend, and I said yes immediately.  Mt. Adams is 12,281 feet above sea-level, and the most popular assent route (South Spur) is not technical and is described most frequently as a walk up.

We left on Saturday and took our time to get to the Cold Springs Campground at 5600 feet.  We were into camp at around 8:30 pm.  The plan was to get up at 4 am and hit the trail by 5.  I was in my tent and sleeping by 10:30 am.  I slept through the night, which was quite a feat considering there was a rescue team that showed up around midnight.  The other 3 people in my party all heard the commotion, but I didn't hear a thing.  I googled "adams climber rescue," and it sounds like the injured person will be okay.  You can read more here: Seattle Times article.

We woke up around 4, did all the things we needed to do, and hit the trail by 5am.  I know I've said every hike will a training hike, but I did not carry a heavy pack.  I took extra clothing, water, and food.  We were all taking only what we needed, and I was concerned enough with getting up to the summit.  I knew the summit was above 12,000 feet, and I have never hiked up that high.  I was also worried about altitude sickness (especially after I got sea sick in a kayak).

We started in the dark, so with head lamps on we hiked on the trail for about an hour before we started to hit well traveled patches of snow.  The moon was almost full Saturday night and was setting in the west as we hiked.  By about 6:30, we were beginning to hit snow fields, and by 7, we were at the crescent glacier.  It was here where we stopped, put crampons on our boots, and busted out some ice axes. It was also sunny enough that I put on my sweet, new climbing sunglasses, complete with the leather black flaps on the side.  I may not have a clue what it takes to climb, but I looked legit.

We traversed a ridge along the edge of the glacier and climbed up to a place called lunch counter.  It was some tough snow walking.  The crampons helped me from slipping a lot, but I was keeping my eyes down looking for previous foot steps or a relatively flat place to kick my toe into the slope and walk up.  As soon as we began climbing up from lunch counter, the climb went from steep, to steeper.  I was falling back a bit from my party, but there were tons of people on the mountain.  I estimate that I saw at least 100 people.  Around 10, we took a break on a little boulder field below Pikers Peak, or the false summit.  I was exhausted, my feet hurt, my fingers were numb, but other than that I felt good.   I was starving and ate some good snacks.  I drank some water and put on gloves.  My feet were going to hurt as long as I had those crampons on, and I knew it.  I don't have mountaineering boots, so my hiking boots had to do.

After a decent break, we began the steepest, longest slog of the climb.  It took forever to get up to the false summit, and we knew were going to have more once we got there.  There was really nothing to do but keep moving up one step at a time.  I was the last to the top of the false summit and was greeted with freezing, strong wind gusts and a bunch of other people all scattered about, resting from the same climb I just finished.  Again, I found myself famished and ate, but I was quickly wearing multiple layers and still shivering.  We got up and our next break was the summit.

This was the best part of the climb for me.  I was still feeling good, in terms of altitude sickness, and the last stretch made this seem a lot easier.  I met two really cool people on my way up and they were heading down.  The guy gave my a part of a Kit-Kat, and we chatted for a few.  I looked up to a busy summit, but a vacant approach.  I climbed the last 15 minutes to the summit alone.  When I got to the summit, the 3 other guys in my party had waited for me.  The four of us walked up together.  It was amazing.  I could see Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, and the Sisters to the south in Oregon.  I could see Mt. St. Helens to the west and Mt. Rainier to the north.  We ended up spending about 15 minutes at the summit when we found ourselves alone with no one climbing up.  Having the summit to ourselves on a busy day was a real nice treat.

I geared up for some glissading.  I had never heard this word until today, but I have been doing this all year long on my hikes.  Apparently to glissadeglissading sounds better.  The first run from the summit was fun, but the snow was hard and icy.  The trick was to be in a groove already made by other people, but even those could hurt or not move very fast.  It took me about an hour to get back to the false summit.  By this time, I had started to feel a bit nauseous.  I think it must have been altitude related, because as we went lower it got better.  And when I got back to the car, it was gone.

Even though my stomach hurt, there was no way I was going to pass up glissading down to the boulder field where the steepest part of the climb began.  I was not the only one who had this idea.  The grove of the glissade track was cut a good 2 or 3 feet deep in places.  It was some of the fastest, craziest sledding I have ever done.  At times it was like a water park ride, remember those tubes where you slide though and get tossed up on the sides.  It was exactly like that, but on a mountain and snow instead of water.

The rest of the hike down consisted of awkward snow walking, glissading, and finally trail walking.  When we got back down to the trail, it was 5 pm.  My ankles, knees, and feet were all aching.  I did, however, enjoy walking on the trail.  Hiking feels good, mounteering can hurt.  Maybe I should do 52 weeks of mountaineering, then it might not hurt either...

We were back at the car by 6 pm.

Orchid: Solo walk to the true summit and having the summit to ourselves for a few minutes.

Onion: Nausea.

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