Trip: Mt Adams - South Spur Ski
Date: 7/11/2008
Trip Report:
This was my first volcano ski, so I kind of made a big deal about it.
Thursday night, I had a serious ski jones going on. So, at about 11 PM I decided to head out to Mt. Adams by myself and try to ski down. Carpe diem, right?
I went to sleep for about an hour, woke up around midnight, packed my bags, got gas, snacks and (lots) of coffee, and drove through the night, arriving at Mt. Adams around 6 AM or so. I was out of the car and moving by 7.
Great views the whole day! Perfect weather; blue-bird skies and not a breath of wind. Here’s Mt. St. Helens in the distance.
And Mt. Hood
I was able to start skinning pretty soon, probably around 6200' or so.
Finally! I reached the summit around noon. I was feeling a bit altitude sick, so I didn't hang around long.
Self-portrait on the summit with Rainier behind me. Finally, time to ski!
Rainier from the summit
I found the skiing down from the summit to be extremely challenging. As a recovering snowboarder, I'm not the world's best skier. The snow was very suncupped and iced, and my tips kept getting eaten by the cups. Making it down this was quite an acheivement for me.
The photo doesn't do it justice. It was like skiing down a forest of rime daggers. But maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of it because I suck.
There was a short carryover above Pikers. Coming down from the false summit, the snow was choppy and cupped, but at least it was soft so my skis could plow through.
The snow below pikers was fucking rad! I lapped a couple of sections that were too perfect to not get seconds.
Snow coverage on Pikers
Ski tracks. What?? You mean I wasn't the first?
Coverage on the lower part of the mountain
On the way out, I ituned the deproach and ended up following some idiots boot pack deep into the forest. I realized he was wrong when his tracks led into a bummer of a schwack down some shitty drainage. Even worse, it was on the (east?) side of the trail, so if you didn't cut west eventually, you'd just keep wandering around in the woods without hitting the road or trail. I wonder how he ended up? From the looks of it, a lot of people followed him into the dark, so at least he has company.
I wasn't interested, so I retraced my steps back up and got on the trail.
I pulled over on the freeway to sleep for a few hours before heading home.
Approach Notes:
Snow is pretty continous around 6000, give or take a few hundred feet or so.