Mt. Adams Mazama Glacier Anyone?

[thatcher]

I've done Rainier(DC), Brothers, Hood, Baldy (its in So-Cal) winter summit up the bowl.

Anyways, Me and a friend are planning on hitting up Adams on friday night/saturday. Thinking about the Mazama glacier...possibly South Spur, but would rather do something at least a little more challenging.

let me know if you want to go.

 

-TK

[plark42]

This weekend? (7-15-05??)- My girlfriend and I want to do Adams from the South Spur (but I want to do something a little more ambitious). I am a NOLS Alaska mountaineering alum so I feel pretty confident about my glacier travel skills- I am in the process of teaching my girlfriend glacier travel stuff but we haven't played with any real crevasses yet. (she wants to come too)

 

I am definitely down to do the mazama glacier up adams- although I would rather go up sat-sunday (I have to work until 430 pm- doing labor intensive landscaping on friday so I might be too pooped to hike in that night)...

 

Let me know if this works for you... If you could do the climb on sat-sunday then we would definitely tag along!!

 

take it easy,

 

Marc

[thatcher]

yeah, my regular climbing partner is busy this weekend, so i am actually now planning on hopefully going up with another friend who doesnt have glacier experience either. we went up to muir in a white out last weekend, thats the most he has done. One problem is that I am short on gear for glaciers. I have an ax, crampons, picket, harness, prussiks, a bit of webbing and a few carribeaners and a helmet. my friend will rent crampons and we will get him a helmet, ax and possibly a picket and prussiks. we currently dont have a rope or harness and may need a couple other little things. if you are able to provide these, then we would be quite glad to do mazama. i hear its much more interesting than south spur. we might possibly get a harness for him. do you know if anywhere in seattle rents harnesses? for liability sake, probably not. anyways, saturday/sunday works for me, and might work for my friend. I will check with him and get back to you. my email address is thatcher@biola.edu

[Kevin_Matlock]

[sidebar] good luck finding a rental harness; a buddy of mine tried to locate one to no avail. just go buy a BD alpine bod... light, durable, and only 30 clams[/sidebar]

[OlegV]

Go with Adams Glacier - it is in a good shape!

[OlegV]

[sidebar] good luck finding a rental harness; a buddy of mine tried to locate one to no avail. just go buy a BD alpine bod... light, durable, and only 30 clams[/sidebar]

 

Hey Kevin! How are you doing buddy?

[thatcher]

Go with Adams Glacier - it is in a good shape!

 

how is it in difficulty compared to mazama? I'm not up for doing something too difficult this weekend.

[BradW]

I climbed Adams Glacier two weeks ago and it was fabulous! This is a steep and sustained route, but otherwise not too technical. You should expect some route-finding challenges. Also, be prepared to place running protection for portions. You can check out the TR my buddy posted at: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/473657/an/0/page/0#473657

 

The North Ridge descent sucks! Make sure you scout it from camp and pick a good couloir to descend off the ridge. We had trouble finding our way off the darn thing and the ridge is totally melted out, so it's all loose scree and talus which is NO fun.

 

Mazama glacier is touted to be much less difficult that Adams Glacier. I'll find out when I climb it this weekend (Sat.-Sun.) for the first time, maybe I'll see you up there.

[OlegV]

Mazama Glacier - brings up some old memories. I climbed the MG in September. I don't remember much of the climb - as Brad described it, it is pretty untechnical - what I remember vividly is the approach, the return, to be exact. I decided to take a shortcut and bypass Mazama Glacier traverse (I didn't like those falling chunks of rock size of a refrigerator anyway). I went straight down from the Mazama Glacier naively following the waters of melting Mazama Glacier. From the moraine I was on, I saw the green valley, and... 100 ft steep drop going in both directions. Water falls, to be exact. Foolishly trying to descent one of the moraines, my elbows fully experienced the driving force of the scree. What was even more dangerous - crossing terminal melting crevasses filled with running water. Giving up an idea of descending, I took compass reading and went in a straight line up and down across the moraines in direction of Mt. Hood. Eventually, I crossed the around the mountain trail around the Indian reservation.

[pup_on_the_mountain]

I'm heading up there.. in a few minutes! Plan is to take a couple of novice buddies up the Mazama glacier (Fri-Sat). It'll be the first glacier experience for both of them. Hope to see some of you guys there!

 

I did the Adams glacier two weekends back too. In my opinion, the Adams might be a little on the tougher side for beginners. And watch for serac falls on the Adams - we saw a huge avalanche when we were up there!

[Kevin_Matlock]

[sidebar] good luck finding a rental harness; a buddy of mine tried to locate one to no avail. just go buy a BD alpine bod... light, durable, and only 30 clams[/sidebar]

 

 

Hey Kevin! How are you doing buddy?

 

Yo, what up homie.... PMs, check 'em!

[chasemarmot]

Did anyone go up? How were the conditions? Is it in good shape for beginners right now?

 

Thanks,

Brandon

[pup_on_the_mountain]

I went up with two newbies that weekend (two weekends back from now). We did not go up from high camp, but the route looked pretty straightforward. There were a few crevasses, but the route around them looked pretty obvious. Another team of two summitted that day. They had high winds (~ 80 mph apparently) above the false summit. They said a guided team coming up the South Spur turned back at the false summit due to the winds.

 

The weather has been pretty stable between then and now. I would guess that the Mazama glacier would still be in good shape - even for newbies. Here are a couple of pictures - overview and close up of the Mazama glacier.