Pencil_Pusher Posted July 11, 2001 Share Posted July 11, 2001 Anybody have any info on this route? If so, how feasible would it be to consider doing this as a day trip? Anybody been up on the Adams Glacier lately? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobR Posted July 11, 2001 Share Posted July 11, 2001 Had a decent look at the face while scoping adams glacier route this past weekend. Giving you the beta i can cause you might not get any specific to the route. Didn't appear to be anybody on it last weekend, nor sign that anybody'd been on it recently. Could be wrong about that, but didn't see any sign of a track. In general face itself looked to be in very good condition (continuous unbroken snow, looks pretty steep), though didn't evaluate ability to cross shrunds at top of face onto summit plateau, nor ability to get onto face from lower adams glacier, since not our intended route. Impression is they were passable though you'll have to see for yourself. Route looks committing, so i'd be most concerned re upper shrunds. Definitely wouldn't want to have to back off from high on the route. Upper shrunds on the glacier were huge & not at all evident until right there. Lower adams was easy with crevasses open, obvious & narrow. Recommend climbing during night due to high freezing levels. That's what we did & snow was in excellent shape. I believe the recommended descent is same as for the adams glacier - north ridge. Thought the descent sucked - hot, dusty, miserable pile of choss, sometimes exposed. Can't for the life of me figure why anybody hikes this route for its own sake. Bad enough as a descent. Route finding is occasionally inobvious, but found it usually best to stay near crest when in doubt. Supposedly there's an escape into snow fields from high on the ridge, which might be worth looking into, especially if it's late enough in the day for the sun to have softened the snow a bit. Hope this info helps & good luck. Curious to hear how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllYouCanEat Posted July 11, 2001 Share Posted July 11, 2001 Check this page out http://students.washington.edu/benman/ for route conditions and a climbing report plus pics on the NFNWR and Adams glacier. There will be some blue ice and you can always traverse over to the ridge if you have too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pencil_Pusher Posted July 11, 2001 Author Share Posted July 11, 2001 Damn dude, that's some of the best beta I've gotten and more than I'd ever expected! Thanks to you both for the insight, I'll post again when we get back monday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adr_901 Posted July 12, 2001 Share Posted July 12, 2001 We were on Adams Glacier On the 29th of June. I posted a trip report. Alex and Tom were on the route the same day as well and their trip report is posted. I can give you details of the route if you want, feel free to email me. Chugach900@yahoo.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pencil_Pusher Posted July 15, 2001 Author Share Posted July 15, 2001 All, thanks again for the beta. I had to beg a couple of buddies into going along with me and Rob. The weather predictions weren't good, but we decided to go for it anyway. We got to the Killen Creek TH at 9ish-pm Friday night. After a bit of hiking in the dark, we reached the base camp area at 6800 feet. Great place to bivy. Next morning we got up and left at 5:40. At the lake and start of the glacier we roped up and started heading for Adams Glacier. Negotiating crevasses and the schrund weren't too obvious until you were right there. But it was fairly easy going with us relatively easily getting to the base of the route. We did note some somewhat fresh looking tracks coming up(down?) to/from the Divide Camp Trail area. I wonder if some other folks had just gone up there? Anyhow, we were a party of four with an 8.8 rope, eight screws and six pickets. Our plan was to move until we thought it appropriate to chop the rope and go in teams of two, we each had a mtn axe and ice tool. Bob thought we wouldn't place a single screw. I am happy we had all of the equipment we brought. As it was, the route was quite a bit of water ice with crappy snow covering. On running belay we went up using all screws and pickets in the first thousand feet. Changing leads, I was dead-beat tired(we kept moving as a team of four), we kept on up some water ice, (read hard and fatiguing for us Seattle folks). Thankfully the slope eased up to where we could unrope around 11000. Around there is some running water, silty(yech!) but better than nothing. Reaching the false summit, we roped up again and headed on over to the actual summit. Bob punched through to his thighs on one crevasse coming down from the false summit, totally not obvious as I obliviously lead past it (they put the slow man in front). I swapped out lead with the second and punched through a crevasse but used my forward momentum to do a slow belly flop and a "Shit!". I didn't bother to stop and see how deep it was, the two behind me said the hole was big and deep. FYI for all others, that was right near a wand with yellow tape on it. Further slogging brought us to the summit. Got a good photo of a big dog on top. The mountain must've been warning us with the noxious sulfur emissions as we headed for our descent of the north ridge. I got nicked and bruised more on that stupid ridge than on the whole ascent. Not only does it suck, it makes any climb anywhere near it dangerous as hell. Loose rock is all over the damn place and any route near there would pose a major rock hazard. As it was on our route, I saw two rocks go whizzing by on the first part, while we were on the schrund, and heard one while on route only to see it go whizzing by, a few feet away and hauling ass. We all said we thought it was an aircraft with that first, initial sound. Anyhow, I think folks could continue to do this route without schrund or crevasse problems for another month, probably longer. There is considerable water ice on route and the snow quality made for some iffy picket placements in places. I can't imagine it getting any better so screws are the way to go, unless you're good enough to go without them. Another thing, what's up with all the permits? Parking, wilderness use, volcano pass... a tourist would have to jump through bells and whistles while visiting. Leave it to the Seattle folks like me to bitch and whine about it. All in all, a great route with some good guys. The weather was maginificent with no clouds until ascent day and then only in the distance. Not much wind and nothing but sunshine the whole day. Another thing, it took us 10:20 from camp to summit. No speed record for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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