The first trip was a Sunday/Monday thing with two of my colleagues. We drove to the Cold Springs campground Sunday afternoon, camped, and climbed the mountain on Monday. We started at 5 am after a pretty sleepless night. We were one of the last groups to leave that day. There were very few people on the mountain, which was nice. I remember when I first climbed Adams in August of 2011 (Week 50), it was a parade of hundreds of climbers. The climb was long, but the day was amazing. We made it to the summit in a little less than 9 hours. We were the last group to summit that day. We then had a great, fast glissade down. We were back at the car three hours later.
The other yes was from a former student who is an excellent hiking buddy. He and I have hiked a few times together, including this last February in Havasu. He sat shotgun the entire trip in my van, and we became pretty good traveling buddies. He and I took off from Tacoma around 9 pm and reached the trailhead around 2 am. We took a solid 3 hour nap. Woke up at 5:25 am, and we were off hiking by 5:50 am. We were last group leaving the trailhead on Friday. We were a little slower than my Monday climb, but I think that was due to the heat. It was so hot. On Monday, I hiked in pants, long sleeve, hat with bandana, and a light jacket. If we stopped I would get chilled. On Friday, I was in shorts and a short sleeve shirt and didn't need layers when we stopped. The hat made my face feel hot, but I knew I needed the sun protection. The snow was a slushy mess too. It was great was to see this kid reach his first big summit. He was definitely proud and excited. We hung out on the summit for an hour. We were the last to summit on Friday too. We left the summit at 4:15 pm and were back down 3 hours later.
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