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Adams - South route, avy conditions


Alex_Mineev

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If you go I would appreciate it if you could fill me on access to the start of the route via the forest service road. I'm headed there Memorial Day weekend from out of state and I need to plan our itinerary appropriately. snaf.gif

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According to the forest service website, the road to the South Spur route (FS 8040) is closed at "Wicky Shelter" or something like that. I don't know where that is, but you might want to call the FS up and find out how close that is to the trailhead.

Please post a note here if you get any info.

Mt. Adams Ranger District office (509) 395-3400.

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation2003/roads/index.shtml

 

 

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Looks like it's winter all around Adams.

I could no get closer than 20 miles to Trout Lake by FR-23...

After driving 30 miles from Randle I hit thick snow and turned back. The snow may melt away really quick though. I also saw traces of bigger SUVs going farther than my turnpoint.

 

Are there any other roads to South approach than FR-23?

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From Seattle, the fastest approach to Trout Lake is to drive I-5 to I-84, take that to Hood River, then take WA state route 141 north. Even when FR-23 is clear of snow, it'll still be faster to drive around on the interstates.

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According to the FS Web Sight, road is closed 1 mile past Wicky Shelter as of 5-13-03. I plotted on map software to find that from point of road closure you have a 5.2 mi/1600' trip to cold springs then another 1.3mi/750' for a total of 6.5 mi/2350' to trailhead at Timberline C.G. From there it is the usual 5.1 mi/6030' climb up dog route to the summit. Basically the snow on road more than doubles the total distance.

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I climbed the south spur last weekend under great conditions. It took my largish party about 3 hours to go from our car to treeline. Not bad at all. The climb is easy and completely covered in beautiful consolidated snow. there were tons of skiers out, and if you've got the skills, that's totally the way to go. I wish I'd rented some.

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well, we never actually saw the trailhead. it was either completely buried or the snowmobile tracks we were following bypassed the end of the road. I'm figuring it was maybe 4 or 5 miles though? complete guess. maybe about 1.5 miles below the second closest trailhead (morrison ck campground?).

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Timcb, your guess was pretty accurate.

 

My mountain SAR unit was up to the South Side yesterday to look for a lost climber (he walked out and hitched to Glenwood by apparently descending the Mazama from the false summit instead of Suksdorf Ridge via the Lunch Counter; he was ok, but very tired and burnt). The FS chipped in two snowmobiles (added to our one and evac sled) and ferried us to Timberline Camp, which is just about five miles from where vehicles are currently being parked. Parking is currenlty about 1 mile or so below Morrison Creek Campground.

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We were on Adams the day this guy disappeared. We were pretty concerned about him and his partner. It was very cold and windy at the summit and they were not wearing parkas or even much in the way of wind gear.

 

Not to be a gearista but they were not well equipped. They had lightweight hiking boots and universal crampons that did not fit very tightly. The last time we saw the guy who got lost he had left his climbing partner on the last steep slope going up to Piker's Peak.

 

He asked me to take his picture before he started up the pinnacle carrying his ice axe backwards. The pinnacle looked very icy a couple hundred feet up and we decided to turn around when conditions turned to whiteout and sleet started petlting us.

 

On our way down we asked his very exhausted looking partner if he wanted to go down with us. He said no and eventually made it back to the camp site we shared just below the South Butte. We were packing up when he stumbled back into their camp.

 

We hoofed/slogged back to the car and found out he was missing from the ranger when we checked in.

 

I'm glad the guy was found alive. We really figured he was dead as a doornail considering how cold the summit was, how poorly dressed and equipped he was. We assumed they were not well experienced either. snaf.gif

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RHRoop said:

previous stuff snipped ...I'm glad the guy was found alive. We really figured he was dead as a doornail considering how cold the summit was, how poorly dressed and equipped he was. We assumed they were not well experienced either. snaf.gif

 

The one who got "lost" was, indeed, not very experienced. Our info sez that he had taken a 1-day mtn'rng course somewhere. Our info also sez that he was with a member of this board (who I will not name) that apparently is an experienced mountaineer, altho I believe not from this area, so Adams may have thrown him (and his party) for a loop.

 

In any event, his partner informed us that the boot track down from Piker's Peak (false summit) "was about 7 feet wide" and pretty hard to miss. So go figure. He got himself out, and I got an extra day off work.

 

We sure got the response, tho! Over 2 dozen climbers volunteered, altho only the 4 of us from CWMR even got close to their camp at SB. Everyone else got called off just as they arrived at the ranger station.

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The boot track was indeed wide but there was precip, high wind, flat light and alternating whiteout. It took concentration to get down and I was very relieved to get out of the cloud cap.

 

I don't want to offend anyone who posts here but you really shouldn't be attempting a mountain like Adams without the proper equipment- especially late spring or early summer- including proper boots, wind and water proof shells and insulating layers. This is no doubt preaching to the choir but when we thought this guy was dead we were freaked out and humbled.

 

Climbing with your partner (WITH meaning as a team and just not at the same time) and knowing how to use your gear (an ice ax is just weight if you don't carry it properly) cannot be over emphasized. bigdrink.gif

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RHRoop said:

I don't want to offend anyone who posts here but you really shouldn't be attempting a mountain like Adams without the proper equipment- especially late spring or early summer- including proper boots, wind and water proof shells and insulating layers. This is no doubt preaching to the choir but when we thought this guy was dead we were freaked out and humbled.

 

Climbing with your partner (WITH meaning as a team and just not at the same time) and knowing how to use your gear (an ice ax is just weight if you don't carry it properly) cannot be over emphasized. bigdrink.gif

 

I agree with both your points above. While bad weather can arrive anytime, it is especially important to be aware at teh season extremes. I was telling my wife over the weekend, "I just know we're gonna get called out this weekend. I just know that someone's gonna get all amped up with the first long weekend of the summer season and be all excited and go get themselves in trouble."

 

And climbing WITH someone really should mean WITH someone, as you so astutely note. This one worked out OK, and I'm glad for it. The subject was quite contrite, if not embarrassed, when he saw and heard of the size of the gathering he generated.

 

Lesson learned, we hope.

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Anybody know where this "cliff" is?

 

WASHINGTON: COPTER RESCUES 6 FROM CLIFF Rescuers plucked six hikers listed as missing since Tuesday off a steep cliff face in Gifford Pinchot National Forest in southern Washington. The hikers were in "remarkably good" health after a Coast Guard helicopter airlifted the group to an airport near Portland, Ore., said Patrick Brennan, an officer at the Coast Guard air station in Astoria, Ore. They are Timothy Hensley, 25, Alicia Hensley, 25, Russell Maddy, 23, Jaime Maddy, 24, and Jennifer Skoog, also in her 20's, all of Vancouver; and Matthew Margolis, 29, of Portland.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/29/national/29BRFS2.html

 

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