The end of July featured a weeklong trek of Southern Washington and Oregon that Nicole and I pulled off right after she graduated school and I started a new job. It was a beautiful thing because we both had been dreading the summer of no vacation, and then all of a sudden a week of free time landed in our laps, and we took full advantage.
First up was Mt Adams- we drove down and camped at the trailhead on the 23rd- I can see why access is so difficult for this climb- the road is rough (for a Civic) and I could easily imagine how a bit of snow would push the opening of it back weeks upon weeks.
At the crack of 9:30 we were off.... like we were on vacation. Which we were. It was relaxing to start a climb so late in the morning.
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| Heading up the trail- one night easily fitting in a 38L pack |
We took our time and managed to get turned around a bit... a decent bootpack went West around the Crescent Glacier but we kept wanting the east route to go as it was more direct... we did finally find a way through, and a smaller bootpack going that way as well- turns out it is the "winter" route.
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| Mt St Helens was in view much of the day |
I began skinning not far from where the trail had left the treeline only a mile or so in, but had to portage over small rockmelt numerous times. Despite that the skinning was all very easy and the climb was enjoyable. I stayed relatively close to Nicole in the bootpack and we made steady progress, after getting unlost. We got up to camp around 3pm and spend a wonderful afternoon lounging around and drying out clothes.
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| Nicole heading on up the final slopes to camp |
The views were spectacular- with Hood and Jefferson clearly visible to the South and St Helens looking so close just off to the west.
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| Mt Hood |
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| Mt St Helens |
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| Climbers and Mt Hood |
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| Mt St Helens in the fading light |
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| Hood from lunch Counter |
Sunset light was excellent on these surrounding peaks. The southerly aspect of our camp kept any real alpenglow forming on any nearby slopes, but with the colorful skies around and the hazy skies adding a mystery to some of the far away ridgelines, it was a beautiful sunset. Off to bed at 9PM!
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| Piker's Peak under the stars |
I snapped some photos of the clear night sky, but otherwise got a good nights rest looking forward to the climb the next day. We woke at 5AM, ate a quick breakfast and joined the hordes ascending on Piker's Peak. I tried my hand at skinning what I could of Piker's- probably made it up about halfway, but then gave in to the ease of bootpacking. If only I hadn't left those skipons in the car. The transition on hard steep snow was good practice and soon enough I was joining the congo line on the staircase.
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| heading up Piker's in the AM |
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| Looking back down towards camp- Nicole climbing up |
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| Crampons and axe... essential tools of the day |
I joined back up with Nicole just below the summit of Piker's and we took a quick break before pushing over the top. At over 10,000' we were feeling it a bit, but had plenty of time left to summit and get back down to camp.
After topping out on Piker's we made the traverse across the plateau and were set to do the last 600' up to the summit. A low cloud deck hung out just a few hundred feet above us making for interesting lighting.
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| ants climbing |
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| Summit of Adams (not really, but we went there after this picture) |
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| Rainier... peaking out just a bit |
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| Beautiful weather window |
We snapped a few summit photos and then started our descent. I gave Nicole a bit of a head start, relaxing on the summit for a few minutes, then clicked into bindings and tried to keep enough speed to get back up to Piker's..not quite. Had to do a little shuffle, but didn't have to boot or skin at least.
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| Nicole descending from the summit |
The sun hadn't quite come out as was forecast and I was afraid Piker's might be a bit too firm for good turns. As it turned out about 1-2" of decent heavy snow was laid out on a pool table, so the skiing wasn't bad at all. I picked out the steepest line I could on skier's right and let it rip down the first third of the slope. Nearing the bottom the snow got heavier, but always easily carvable- more than a few hollers were in order.
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| Piker's Peak |
Arriving back at camp we quickly packed up and began our descent. There was much to be skiied / glissaded below so we made excellent time. 5.5 hours up and 2 hours down! We threw our stuff in the car and drove off to the next leg of our vacation, a B&B in Hood River.
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| Adams on the drive out |
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