Alex_Mineev Posted August 26, 2003 Share Posted August 26, 2003 Overall impression: nice simple climb with good views and easy snow; disgusting half mile of 30-35 degree scree on approach below Sunrise camp. I was surprised to see only one party in the camp that had already summited and was heading down. So we climbed alone this Sunday. Left camp at 5.30am. Summited at 11am. Route finding on the glacier is obvious if you keep right side. Firm snow above 8500ft, bare not steep ice just above the camp. There was some insignificant rockfall at 9000ft and 500ft below the false summit. Regarding permits: we were told at Trout Lake ranger station that if we enter and climb on the indian side of the mountain we do not need to buy climbing pass, and we only have to get parking permit at bird creek meadows. So we went to the trailhead and did not see anybody selling permits. After asking around we've figured out that there should be a lady with permits couple miles below the trailhead at bird lake. Apperently that lady was not there when I was driving up. That costed me about 40 minutes to drive down to the lake to find that lady in her RV, get the papers and get back... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gohawks Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Alex - A friend and I are talking about climbing Mazama or another easy Adams glacier in a couple weeks. How do the crevasses look on Mazama now? Also, did you need to use ice screws at any time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Mineev Posted August 29, 2003 Author Share Posted August 29, 2003 No need for screws if you do not fall into crevasse Just keep right side and you'll be fine. We stepped over one or two crevasses. Anyway, I would probably recommend having screws for rescue since its a glacier and snow looks thin in some places and firm until 10500. We did not have them and I felt a bit anxious on the lower part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigA Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 (edited) Alex, I think myself and my friend and his wife were the other party you saw on Sunday, since we left Sunday morning after climbing Sat. I'm glad to hear you had a good climb. We did not purchase climb permits either and I also did not purchase them the week before when Sabertooth and I climbed the headwall variation. I agree, ice screws etc. were not needed but should be carried....just in case. There are some good size crevasses but they are all pretty obvious, although some are still corniced pretty good so care should be taken at all times. Pretty much your basic "glacier common sense". I'm attaching a picture of one of the crevasses we negotiated, as you can see its a pretty good sized one for the Mazama Glacier that is. gohawks, I highly recommend this route as the views are amazing and the isolation is refreshing from some of the other Cascade climbs. Staying right down low (right out of camp) is safer as far as crevasses go but if the temps are warm be aware of rockfall. It's pretty obvious from camp what were talking about, your'll see the big boulders littering this area. We started pretty much up the middle and navigated the crevasses as necessary. When we got through the lower crevasse field we edged a little right and worked through a couple a big crevasses before ending up all the way right about 2/3 of the way up the first steep section (this kept us out of the bulk of the rockfall areas but did require some close up views of some BIG crevasses). Anyway, use common sense and enjoy the climb, its a lot of fun. Craig Edited September 4, 2003 by CraigA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigA Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 gohawks, since I don't know how to add them to the post I'm attaching another picture which shows the route from camp. The yellow line was our approximate route and the blue lines outline the main rockfall area (notice the littering of rocks here), the red line shows an alternate route that Sabertooth and I saw a group use the week before. The problem you may run in to with this option is there is one big (and getting bigger) crevasse to cross and since your talking about another week or two it might not be crossable at that time. It might be worthwhile to go up and have a look at it the day before or just plan on moving very quick through the "rockfall zone". Let us know how it goes. Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Mineev Posted September 10, 2003 Author Share Posted September 10, 2003 Hey Craig, yeah, I remember! Sure it was you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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