[TR] Mt. Adams South Side - Trail 183- South Side 8/9/2005

[rbwen]

Climb: Mt. Adams South Side - Trail 183-South Side

 

Date of Climb: 8/9/2005

 

Trip Report:

My wife and I headed out on Tuesday afternoon, leaving Wenatchee about 10am not really knowing how long the drive would take us. About SIX hours later we were at the trailhead ready to go. We went south through Yakima and Naches and headed to Randle and Highway 23. The dirt roads sucked and made me think heading back by the southern route might be the better way to go home.

 

We paid our $10 each for the climbing permits, got our cute little poop bags from the ranger, and hit the trail. An aside: the poop bag system they have is pretty slick. I've used the Rainier blue bags before but this takes it to a new level. The ranger told us it was modeled on the Shasta System. I may be preaching to the choir here but basically it was a piece of paper with a target on it, two brown paper bags, one of them containing kitty litter, a paper towel, and a plastic Zip Lock bag. You end up with a very clean, neat, and tidy little package to tote back to the trailhead with you. There are even special garbage cans just for human waste. Okay...enough about poop. Actually a little more...we did notice a bit of an odor at the Lunch Counter and some 'residue' from previous visitors. Not cool.

 

It took us about four hours to get from the parking lot to the Lunch Counter, including a bit of wandering around looking for a good campsite, of which there were plenty. The one we chose had a great wind break which was crucial because it was somewhat windy at night. We talked to another guy the next day who was camped west of the LC and he said he had only slept about 40 minutes the night before because of the wind and the location of their camp. Snow started about 9,000 feet and went all the way to the summit.

 

The day was sunny and warm and the breeze just took the edge off the heat. By the time I reached camp my body shut down due to low blood sugar and the headache kicked in. It took all I had to get the tent set up and my sleeping bag draped over my body while my wonderful wife cooked up dinner. Poor lunch planning on our part made this an early evening. We didn't have the strength to get water and I was wondering if we would even get up to summit because I was feeling so crappy.

 

At midnight I got up and ate my dinner and went back to sleep. Feeling better, my headache gone, I felt more assured that we would make an attempt at the summit in a few hours.

 

There were probably about seven or eight groups of people camped at or near the LC. Most were groups of two but there were larger groups of six to eight, but it was a pretty quiet night. The stars were amazing and I'm wishing to was up there tonight for the meteor shower.

 

We got up about 5am and made breakfast. Luckily for us there was a lot of water just to the west of the LC. We filtered it knowing there is probably a decent amount of waste from the nearby campsites. There was ample water at the LC and a fair amount of snow melt in the snow fields on the way down.

 

We started up the snow field with one group ahead of us that had gotten an early start. I saw them at 5am with headlamps starting up the snow field. We pretty much went straight up the snow field sorta feeling out the conditions for crampons or ice axes and decided it was good enough in our hiking boots and trekking poles. This was to be the same the whole day. We veered to the right, east, and headed up a scree trail for a good long ways. The trail is very visible once you get on it and seemed to be easier than trying to kick in steps on the snow field. When we finally hit snow we were still to the east of the main snow field and there were no tracks in the snow. We started up the snow field and the going was pretty easy because of the size of the sun cups. It was almost like walking up stairs because they were so deep and the top layer was giving us a great surface to kick in steps. We came out on the false summit just ahead of the group that had started before us. Toward the top of the eastern snowfield we came up some pretty good sized crevasses but we weren't worried too much because the footing was pretty good. We didn't use axes or crampons on the snow fields because it was terribly icy. Our ski poles worked just fine and we saw people using every combination therein; poles and crampons, ice axes and crampons, and nothing but hiking boots. We both wore our mountaineering boots and were glad we had the rigid soles to make the snow fields and scree slopes easier to navigate. I don't think it would've been quite as enjoyable in regular hiking boots/shoes.

 

That group was roped up because I believe the middle person was an inexperienced climber. The two at the front and back might have been guides but none of them had ice axes and I couldn't tell if they were using crampons. BUT what I didn't understand was why were they roped up if they didn't have ice axes? This was puzzling me for a while for a couple of reasons. Were they short roping her knowing the conditions were pretty safe and it would help her get up? What if she, or one of the others, fell? They didn't have ice axes to arrest their falls. I'm not trying to create any blame but I just didn't understand their tactic and I've been trying to work it out in my mind. If the person in the middle did fall the front person would not have time to react leaving the last person to arrest all three of them with ski poles? Again, don't pounce all over them or me for what they were doing. This may be a perfectly good way to get someone up the mountain in relatively safe circumstances, but it was sorta steep, sorta icy, and at altitude.

 

With the summit in sight we had two options; take the dirt path up to the right or the snowfield to the left. We decided on the snow field because we had had good luck with the sun cups down below and it was relatively easy to get up them. We met a gut at the top who said he had taken the dirt path and claimed it was pretty easy too. When we got to the top we cruised up to the snow-filled cabin, took some pics, and ate our summit treat. We were surprised we were the first ones because we had gotten what we thought was a late start on the morning. We weren't quite sure if the cabin was the true summit or the summit to the east with the USGS plaque so we made sure we danced on both of them before leaving. It took us about three hours to get from the LC to the summit with a bit of route finding and wandering along the way.

 

As we were leaving a stream of people came up behind us, probably close to thirty to forty in varied groups spread out along the trail. We decided to go down the dirt trail to the false summit and it was pretty easy.

 

From the false summit we put on the rain pants and headed down the glissade chutes for a couple thousand feet. They were in great shape, just squishy enough to give us a pretty controlled decent but fast enough and curvy enough to make them very fun. We went until my wife's butt was frozen through and my rain pants split. I had the biggest grin on my face and it was like being a kid on the waterslides.

 

Back at camp at the LC it was eerily quite because everyone was still climbing so we took a nap. We were interrupted in the middle of our nap by the ranger checking to see if we had our climbing permits. He didn't actually check them but just asked if we had them and moved on.

 

We packed up our gear and headed back down to the car, passing day hikers and the occasional group headed up to take our place at the LC. We got back to the car in about two hours making it a 24 hour trip car-to-car. On the way out we headed south toward White Salmon and Oregon to see if it would be faster to get back home that way. It took about an hour off of our trip back to Wenatchee, via Goldendale and Yakima, with a stop in White Salmon for some badly needed Mexican food and the obligatory beer.

 

All in all this was a very fun climb. Not too technical, somewhat strenuous, and a great time of year to be out in the alpine. I would love to go back in the spring, skin up, and ski down.

 

Gear Notes:

Brought crampons but didn't use them

Brought ice axes but used them only to glissade

Trekking poles made life so much easier

No rope/helmet

Chocolate summit treat

 

Approach Notes:

For us coming up from the south was the way to go. There are about 30 miles of dirt roads from the north which can be avoided by coming in via the south. It was six hours from Wenatchee via Randle and five hours home via Goldendale. The trail was sandy and in good shape until the just below the first glacier, rocky from that point until the snow at about 9,000 feet. Snow all the way to the summit from there.

[rangerBeezer]

We talked to another guy the next day who was camped west of the LC and he said he had only slept about 40 minutes the night before because of the wind and the location of their camp.

 

I think that was me!