[TR] Mount Adams - Adams Glacier Ski (attempt) 7/12/2008

[AlpineK]

Trip: Mount Adams - Adams Glacier Ski (attempt)

 

Date: 7/12/2008

 

Trip Report:

 

 

[font:Arial Black]Adams Glacier Skiing [/font]

 

 

[font:Times New Roman]I've skied the south side of Adams a few times. Each time was good, but eventually I started thinking about skiing on the north side.

 

I talked it over with Hugh, and we decided to give the north side a shot and see what happened.

 

This year with our good snow pack I figured mid July would be just fine. Well things didn't quite work out that way. [/font]

 

 

 

[font:Arial]View of Adams from our camp [/font]

 

 

 

[font:Times New Roman] Saturday the 12th we hiked through the woods. I had tons of fun navigating with a new GPS. Eventually we broke out of the trees and got to the point where there were ski slopes ahead.

 

We set up camp, but the weather was hot and the snow looked a little too soft for fun skiing. We walked around and checked out the view.

 

One thing we noticed was that crevasses on the Adams Glacier were more exposed than we liked for good skiing. There's an obvious line on the west flank of the glacier, but there were some gaps open there.

 

Eventually I decided to try and hide from the sun and bugs. I took a nap, but I couldn't escape mosquitoes.[/font]

 

 

 

[font:Arial]Here's the view of Rainier from camp [/font]

 

 

 

[font:Arial]View of Saint Helens [/font]

 

 

 

[font:Times New Roman]Early in the morning we got up and skied up the mountain. Things were looking good until we reached High Camp. At that point the snow ended and we faced a long trudge with skis on our back. [/font]

 

 

 

[font:Arial]View of the Adams Glacier from High Camp [/font]

 

 

 

[font:Times New Roman]On closer examination our opinion of skiing on the Adams Glacier dropped. We both decided that we should have come up here 3 weeks earlier.

 

High Camp is a nice spot with scenic meadows, but eventually we put on our skis and headed back to camp. At camp we cleaned up and skied down as far as we could.

 

On descent I had more fun with the GPS. I've never used them much, but for professional reasons I needed one. I map trees, so you need devices that work under canopy cover. This one did fairly well.

 

Anyway we got back to the car and drove north.

 

This wasn't quite the ski I was looking for, but I've never been in to the north side of Adams. In fact the only previous time I had been in the area was when my father and I climbed mount Curtis Gilbert and Old Snowy. I was 12 at the time, so that's been a while. [/font]

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

The weather was warm. We had a lot of stuff for skiing, but all you needed was hiking shoes. I had a GPS, but you should never depend on stuff like that.

 

Take sunscreen and glasses

 

Approach Notes:

I found these directions helpful

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

One thing we noticed was that crevasses on the Adams Glacier were more exposed than we liked for good skiing.

 

Did it look like the route is still in good shape for climbing?

 

[Winter]

wow, it looks a lot more melted out than i would have thought based on the snowpack this year.

[AlpineK]

Yeah, given this winter I was planning on more snow.

 

I have heard Cliff Mass from the UW mention that while temperatures were below normal this spring so was precipitation.

 

As for climbing there are some big slots to deal with at about 1/3 height of the icefall. That is what changed our minds about skiing. I'd say climbing will be tricky there. The upper 2/3 of the route looks pretty straightforward. Possibly climbing may involve being prepared to deal with seracs.

[jeremyl]

Thanks for the TR. Looks like Adams GL might not be in the best shape this year... Was thinking of going up this weekend but the two reports I have found (yours and one other from same time frame) dont really inspire. I hate mosquitos too. Anyone been up in recent days???

[mbiundo]

Headed up the Killen Creek Trail on Friday the 18th. Summitted via the north cleaver on the 19th. All Choss! More snow than last year but minimal. Loads of mosquitoes from the TH all the way up until about 7k feet.

I'm posting some high resolution panoramic photo's here if you are interested. They will be placed in google earth too. Last Year's cleaver looked the about the same as this year.

 

http://share.gigapan.org/searchGigapansList.php?keywords=biundo&widget=header_top

-Marc

[pc313]

I have been told that in april and may if you know some one with

a snowmobile to take you in it's graet sking,I have a few friend's who go snowmobiling all the time,and claim thay can get to rim of Mt. St. Helen's, and high up on Adams? But I dont belive it!!!

[AlpineK]

A snowmobile sure would be a nice way to deal with the bullshit logging roads on Adams(unless you're into that kind of thing).

[pc313]

A snowmobile sure would be a nice way to deal with the bullshit logging roads on Adams(unless you're into that kind of thing).

Sat night after 3 days climbing and camping got to the car and drove to Macdonalds in Bingen,WA still in my gortex snowpants and climbimg boots ,and this old guy saids been snowmobiling,no just got back from Mt.Adams climbing. So he tells my about the time he rode his snowmobile up to Lunch counter at 9,200 on Adams,and got busted by the Forest cops on snowmobiles and got a big fine! I told him they dont start patroling tell 12-18-08. He smiled and said sounds fun but i just sold his snwmobile for i'm getting too old for that shit!

 

Picture on thusday 12-4-08 from Trout Lake at 4pm

Edited December 8, 2008 by pc313