gasper

Can someone recommend a place to practice self arresting? I need about a 35 degree angle hill with good run out. I'm in Seattle area.

MSR lightening ascent. They have a traction ring round the outside, good crampon, and a heal platform. Tails included. I had no problems on frozen 30 degree snow to fluffy powder. I ordered some longer womens, as they are narrower than mens (ima dude). REI has them on sale right now, but still spendy. You can also rent them from REI for 20 bucks right now if you want to demo before you buy.

Headed down today to try on Monday.

Wish you almost didn't mention it. Now thinking of driving down and trying again... 1 day though, I got what I needed out of my last camping experience.

Monday afternoon the road was good, not so much the weather. Some fallen logs in the road that were mostly cleared, enough to squeeze by anyway.

Thanks for responding. I am up and back and now reading this...I'll post my experience for others. I was uneasy about going due to the forecast, but I reluctantly agreed to go. We were going to go up to the LC, camp, and see what happens. The forecast was pretty correct this time (despite seemingly being off many times prior)! We lazily started and made it up to about the LC at about 1PM and started looking for a spot. For most of the morning the weather was quite nice. Towards the afternoon though, the weather was deteriorating. The night brought lows in 20s, lots of wind, and 8" of snow. I don't know what the winds were, but checking my phone it was 30 sustained and 45 gusts. Despite being behind the wall, the tent was getting hammered all night. Nothing beyond what we were prepared for temp and wind wise, but um... not the best decision for me to leave the car that day. The following morning was much like the night, cold, lots of wind, snowing. Getting out of the tent in the morning, my heart sank due to the low visibility. Not that we couldn't go to the top, but more we needed to get down and I was uneasy about it. We lost the trail due to the fresh snow on the way down and not being able to see. We were down far enough though so it wasn't a big deal. At 7500' the trail jogs East and we must have walked right by it. We ended up descending the ridge towards the SW, West of the trail. We were pretty sure of what we'd done so we headed SE to Morrison Creek and then followed it S to the Round the Mountain Trial. Based on the garbage and boot prints we ran into around the creek, I saw others did the same. No summit, but I got experience with some weather. Optional things I am glad I took: insulated leathers light insulating legs extra medweight windstoppper gloves PS: In Bingen, on the main drag, there are amazing burgers at Killer Burger. Eating and being down was definitely the best part of the trip.

Hi, noobie here with questions. What can I expect to find going up Adams in Oct (south spur)? I know its pretty straightforward in the summer, but now that its snowing a bit, what conditions should I expect? Not worried much about temp, I am more thinking of post-holing. I also have a gear question, crampons or not? My freind says we dont need them. He has no experiance in cascades, but I've read both that you need them and optional. I have this link to climbing weather, which is the conditions at the lunch counter or there abouts I think. http://www.climbingweather.com/Washington/Mount-Adams Please let me know your thoughts.

Saint Helens was my first 'mountain'. Even though I've done a lot of hiking, driving up to the mountain it seemed bigger steeper than on the webpage. I was up on the rim ~3 weeks ago. Fantastic day. I think if I fall where am I falling to? On Helens, on the rock, falling is about 10' down or so? Towards the top I think is where a fall could be an issue if you tumbled down the snow slope. I look at the entire route, then break it down to a visible section, then focus on where I am immediately and consequences of loosing footing where I am standing/stepping (more so on snow). Just how I think about it, and not sure if that's right or looking at it that way would help. I don't think the terrain is much different from where you were except for the top which is loose. Just hiking more will build confidence in your footing and stepping through rough terrain.