Trip: Mt. Adams - South Spur
Date: 6/27/2009
Trip Report:
After a long ride car ride from Seattle, we arrived at the trail head at about 10 pm and slept. We woke up at 2 AM and set out. It was a little chilly, but after 10 minutes of hiking, clothing was reduced to a shirt and Mountaineers-style bottoms (shorts and long underwear).
As the sun cam out, there was starting to be a lot more traffic and we could readily feel how how the day was going to be... One guy commented on the snowboards we were carrying and suggested that we leave the boards at the false summit and board down from there; we didn't listen to him. There were nice, kicked out steps until we got closer to the false summit. We opted against an overnighter, so we trucked past lunch counter making good time.
Closer to the false summit, we strapped on crampons because steps weren't as well kicked out and it got a lot steeper. This also made life easier as we didn't have to tailgate slower hikers. On both our sides, we saw many glissaders of which only 80% knew how to properly self-arrest. There were some pretty interesting ways people were doing it... One guy even yelled at this woman for doing it wrong.
We got to the summit where we could see nice views of St. Helens, Rainier, and Hood. There were people EVERYWHERE. Snowboarding down to the false summit was not fun. The snow was suncupped and rocks were poking out everywhere. Snowboarding down from the false summit wasn't fun either... more mogles. We got some nice spots, but the novelty of snowboarding down a summit had already past.
Gear Notes:
Leave snowboards at home
You can do without crampons, but they had their uses
Proper self arrest skills if you plan on glissading
Approach Notes:
You can drive all the way up to the trail.
