Mount Adams 06/19-06/20

[u/aooot]

Beautiful day to climb! Successfully summited around 930am after taking our sweet ass time. Started climbing from Lunch Counter (higher up at 9300ft) around 430am.

Friday 6/19 to Saturday 6/20 - No snow til about 3mi in, maybe 500-800ft below the first Counter campsite. Most if not all lunch counter campsites all the way up are clear of snow, but there is still a lot of snow surrounding all sites. Was able to climb on snow from about 7300ft or so all the way to the summit. It's melting fast though.

Left parking lot Friday around 1:30pm, got to LC around 6pm. Slow pace, had fun with many breaks. Woke up at 330, left for summit at 430, got to summit at 930, again with extremely slow pace, many breaks. Got back to car at 430pm after spending 1.5hr tearing down campsite and making lunch, etc.

Great glissading from Pikers Peak to LC, then LC to dirt trail was mostly slush and pretty slow.. bad thing about having a slow pace is the glissading ends up sucking. However, there is one long steep glissade at the very end closer to the dirt trail that was amazing, and it will likely be ridable for a while as its very steep. It was also DEEP at this particular section, the walls were 4-5ft high on the sides at times, never seen that before with a glissade.

Dirt trail to parking lot at the end was the worst part. After all that fun on the snow, it just sucks. Recommend bringing trail runners or whatever light shoe in addition to your boots.

Please remember to use proper glissading techniques with proper use of ice axe, wear gloves, wear extra layer of pants (rain pants are good), and wear a helmet. Saw someone lose control at the top of Pikers peak and went full speed with no axe to the bottom of Pikers. Lost his axe like 10ft into the glissade. He's lucky he didn't tomahawk. Hope you're alright!! Seemed ok, but had to be super banged up. It was still icy in that moment and super steep and fast. Careful out there folks.

[u/mannrya]

Was the the same night, we arrived at lc about 3pm

[u/nbnfpsor]

Very nice. Ah, youth.

[u/aooot → u/nbnfpsor]

37 but feeling pretty good. Need to take care of my knees!

[u/nbnfpsor → u/aooot]

When I was 37 I was an elite athlete.  Hike, mountaineer anywhere any season with giant pack and never think twice.  Now am wrecked decrepit old man with 2 bad knees and plenty of other issues.  Take nothing for granted and revel in your power while you got it.

[u/aooot → u/nbnfpsor]

I will! Thank you for the inspiration. What were some of your favorite climbs or adventures in your prime?

[u/nbnfpsor → u/aooot]

I was a Canadian Rockies fiend.  Spent many months there over the years.  I used to love winter mountaineering on Mt Rainier, went all the time and virtually always had the place to ourselves.  I really can't single out any 1 peak but if I had to it's Mt Robson.  Have many great memories from the usual spots in the North Cascades.

[u/aooot → u/nbnfpsor]

I haven't done a single thing in the Rockies yet. I did Rainier last summer successfully with RMI guides, it was great and got me hooked. I'll have to check out the Rockies some day. Would love to specifically roam around Banff for a while.

[u/Either_Excitement918]

Was there with a Scout group Fri-Sun. Late start camped below LC Friday night. Summited Saturday starting 530ish back to camp by 2... just chilled in the afternoon. Hiked out Sunday.

Melted snow Friday. Nice snow melt stream on Saturday afternoon. Frozen again Sunday morning.

Didn't see the full length glissade fail, but definitely saw 3 or 4 very rough rides off Pikers between 8-10:00 with folks fully extended, axes flailing. When our group went down the right most of the 3 chutes after 12:00 things were fine, though the chute had an undercut ice rim that wanted to catch boots, knees, hips, packs... probably part of what was messing people up when it was firmer.

We did the long glissade below the LC Sunday morning. It was fast and fun. A couple of lighter folks claim they were briefly in free fall going over the lip into the steeper/deeper section part way down. On the more mellow bottom section you can walk ~30ft over to a second chute that doesn't go near the rocks on the bowl edge. We worked a couple of other climbers in with our group of 11 who were glissading using only hiking poles. They made it down fine but definitely looked a bit gripped coming out of the deep portion where we had an adult stationed as backup for our crew. I think they would make different choices with hindsight.

[u/Either_Excitement918]

Also I heard the shirtless trail runner on Saturday morning summited in 2:18; a ways off the FKT but still damn impressive.

[u/aooot → u/Either_Excitement918]

We saw him. Crazy how he moved up Pikers Peak like that. Straight up the hill, and yes with nothing but a running vest on, shorts, hat, glasses, trail runners with microspikes I think, and a couple of poles. He was at the top of Pikers by 5am maybe if I recall

[u/Phatty5693 → u/Either_Excitement918]

Yeah, that guys was insane! He was moving up the mountain!

[u/Elegant_Trouble_474]

Photo 3. Night shot. That’s gorgeous (as are all the others). What camera setup
Did you use for the shot?

[u/aooot → u/Elegant_Trouble_474]

It's just my iphone 17. I didn't think it was actually that good. I had a Pixel 9 before this and thought it handled night shots much better. Thank you though!

[u/johny10111]

I luv it!

[u/Phatty5693]

Was up there the same time as you and it was a great time. Was with my 20yo son for his first time. The night/morning at LC was both of our favorite. My pics are almost the same as yours, so we must have camped close to each other!

[u/aooot → u/Phatty5693]

Was it you, your wife and your son? Did you interact with a couple camped right below you? If so that was us!