[TR] Mt. Adams- North Face of NW Ridge 6/29/2004

[DonnV]

Climb: Mt. Adams-North Face of NW Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 6/28-29/2004

 

Trip Report:

On Monday and Tuesday, Matt (mguilfoyle) and I climbed the North Face of the NW Ridge on Mt. Adams. We left the Killen Creek trailhead at the crack of 4:15 PM and quickly hiked up to Adams Glacier Meadows, hitting intermittent snow probably about 2 1/2 miles in. We camped fairly low in the Adams Glacier Meadow area, had some dinner and grabbed a few hours sleep before waking at 3 AM, and getting moving by about 3:45.

 

Neither of us had been in to the base of the Adams Glacier before. It's a LONG walk before you get to where you feel you're actually going up. At the base of the actual icefall area, we went a few hundred feet up the Adams Glacier in very soft snow before moving right onto the NFNWR. We were about 2 hours out from camp at that point. The traverse out onto the face could definitely be more of a problem later on, but we had smooth sailing out onto the 45 degree face. The snow was immediately much firmer and cramponing was excellent. Like so many other faces, this one looks so much more intimidating from a distance than it actually is (compare the first and last photos below). We were probably never on anything steeper than 45 degrees, and the angle dropped back closer to 40 after several hundred feet. In the conditions we had, the face was a very straightforward, wide snowfield. It's easy to see why good skiers (way better than me!) would want to ski this face. No doubt later season would bring some more technical climbing challenge.

 

We topped out on the West Summit at about 8:45 and had about a 1/2 hour walk across to the summit. No one else there, but by the time we left 20 minutes later we saw two climbers coming up from the false summit on the south side. We briefly entertained the idea of descending the Adams Glacier. It had looked like a highway for most of the way, but there was a broken area that completely spanned the glacier at about 3/4 height. We thought we probably could have found a way through it, but since we hadn't been able to see it closely, and since it was getting warmer, we headed for the standard North Ridge descent. There had obviously been lots of recent traffic on the NR. Plenty of snow made it a bit faster than it will be later in the season, and we were back in camp 8 1/2 hours after leaving in the morning. A very hot hike out on sore feet seemed to take twice as long as the hike in, but the cooler had done its job and we were able to start the drive home with very cold beer.

 

Nice route, good weather, and very good conditions except for a few hundred feet of soft snow at the base of the Adams Galcier. I was in the area two weeks ago and things are changing fast, but depending on what that one section up high is really like, the Adams itself definitely still looks like a good objective if you're prepared for maybe a short bit of technical work. We saw tracks indicating it had been climbed within the last couple days.

 

The NFNWR is the face just right of the Adams Glacier.

 

Matt just before sunrise, with Rainier behind.

 

Just before leaving the Adams Glacier and moving onto the NFNWR.

 

Matt on NFNWR.

 

Matt descending off of the West Summit. Ahead and left is the top of the North Ridge, and in between is the top of Adams Glacier.

 

The NFNWR from the North Ridge, with Adams Glacier just this side of it. We moved onto the face just above the lowest rock bands in the lower right corner of photo.

 

Gear Notes:

Brought 2 pickets, 4 screws and 2nd tools. We used none of it, but it could all be useful later in the season.

[Chad_A]

Nice send, gents! Glad you had a good time.