[TR] Mt. Adams - South Spur Route 8/13/2008

[rstreicher]

Trip: Mt. Adams - South Spur Route

 

Date: 8/13/2008

 

Trip Report:

First off: if you hadn't been informed yet, the road to Coldwater Springs Campground has been re-opened, now that the fire of the same name was extinguished, and climbers are able to have their way with the mountain again along Trail 183.

 

On Wednesday evening (8/13) I drove up there after work and after registering at the forest service ranger station in Trout Lake, traveled the remaining 15 miles or so to the campground. One thing I noticed about the forest service road leading up to the campground is that it's in way better condition now than when I climbed Adams in 2002. Back then only a 4 wheeler with high ground clearance could have made it up; now I think just about anything with at least 6 inches of ground clearance could get there.

 

Once there I got everything ready for the climb, spread out my sleeping bag in the back of my pickup, and planned to sleep until 3:00 am and start up the dusty trail. The night was warm and beautiful with a gibbous moon. Even though I was comfortable and tired from a long day at work, I guess I was too excited about doing the climb to fall asleep. So at 2:00 am I decided to give up trying and I grabbed my pack and poles and headed out.

 

About the same time that I started out, another couple - Mark and Lauren - also embarked on their trip up. They were a little ahead of me at first, and we played leapfrog throughout the day up to the top - sometimes travelling as a threesome (especially when we needed three headlamps and 6 eyes to figure out where in the darkness the next piling marker was). Mark & Lauren, if you're reading this, it was nice to meet you and I wish you well in the Hood-to-Coast next weekend.

 

Now, about that darkness. That was one of the coolest (almost surreal) experiences I've ever had. First off, even though it was early-early morning, the temperature was warm enough to wear shorts and t-shirt (at least up to around the 8,000 foot level). The moon was just starting to set, and as it got closer to the horizon it became more and more orange. The night sky was filled with stars, and I saw several shooting stars, too. Being able to see the mountain in the light of the moon with the stars as a backdrop was for me the best part of the journey.

 

Once I got to lunch counter, which is a vast plateau at around 9,100 feet, I removed a handful of items from my pack to lighten the load for the next part of the climb. It was around 9:00 am by this point (I know, what a slow-poke). For those of you who've climbed this route before, you know what lies ahead: several hours of some of the hardest work your body's ever known. One long continuous slope that rises about 2,000 vertical feet in a mix of snow, loose rock, and diminishing oxygen. And that's just to get to Piker's Peak (aka, False Summit). It's a grind and ya gotta want it bad! Once on top of Piker's Peak, there's a flat expanse with one of the most spectacular views around. There's of course the awesome views of Mt. Hood (a view which is available throughout the day) and St. Helens (which is viewable periodically along the route). What is most cool though are the glaciers that cover the flat area, the cornices that are visible on the east side of the mountain, and of course the top of the mountain which you can finally view. For me, this was the payoff for all the hard work getting up the slope to Piker's Peak - and the most unique and picturesque part of the whole mountain.

 

The next little task was to walk up the dry slope about 1,000 vertical feet (guessing here) to the top of the mountain. I make it sound easy, but at that elevation I was finding it hard to climb up more than a handful of steps before needing to stop and catch my breath. The top offers the reward of finally getting to see Mt. Rainier directly to the north, as well as a good view of the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area to the northeast. After taking several pictures and spending about half an hour up there, I started heading down. After 12 hours of nothing but going up, what a treat it was to go down for a change! And being able to glissade was not only fun, I'm certain in terms of efficiency it saved me at least an hour compared to walking down.

 

After locating my stashed goods, with the help of my trusty Garmin GPS, I ventured down the rest of the way back to the campground. All told it was a great day and I got to meet several people along the way.

 

One thing of note - all along the way up from lunch counter, there were a continuous flow of thousands and thousand of butterflies making their way from east to west. I'm not sure what species they were or what they were doing so high up, but it was an amazing sight and a real treat.

 

Lessons learned:

 

- make yourself drink water regularly, even if you don't think it's necessary. I thought I was drinking enough, but by the time I got back I had a killer sore throat and could hardly swallow. I'm fairly certain it was due to being a bit dehydrated.

 

- take water-resistant pants if you plan on glissading. I brought a ground pad to slide on, which didn't work very well, causing the snow to pile up on top of the pad. By the time I was done sliding down, my cotton shorts were soaked from the melted snow. Good thing it was warm.

 

- take crampons. I didn't take them and even though the snow was soft enough that it wasn't absolutely required for safety reasons, I had to proceed more cautiously (and slowly) to make sure I had good footing with each step. Crampons would have helped me ascend faster.

 

- take bottled oxygen (just kidding)

 

Here's the link to the pictures I took that day: Mt. Adams Climb Pix 2008

 

Thanks for reading. Happy trails!

[Peakpimp]

Nice Job! I really enjoyed that climb, way to go!

[Jeff W]

Sounds like a great trip. I am going up with one of my sons next Friday and am looking forward to it. I don't believe you mentioned anything about drinking water --- or melting snow for water. Did you melt snow, or were you able to find some water from another source?

[rstreicher]

On this trip I packed in enough of my own water that I didn't need to melt water. However, back in 2002 one of the guys I climbed with ran out of water and used glacier snow for his water. It was kind of funny the way it happened; he brought a special pack that was built to hold water (complete with drinking tube draped over his shoulder for easy access), and when he was at a rest stop along the route, he was leaning back against a rock and without realizing it he squeezed out all the water out of his bag onto the ground. He was pretty upset with himself and didn't see the humor in it, like I did!! Good thing there was potable snow water handy. And a good thing that it was warm enough to melt the snow he stuffed into some of my empty water bottles, because none of us had a way to melt it otherwise.

[pc313]

gave up on my hdro pack,back on the bottle!!

[max delta h]

Nice Trip Report! You wrote: "One thing I noticed about the forest service road leading up to the campground is that it's in way better condition now than when I climbed Adams in 2002. Back then only a 4 wheeler with high ground clearance could have made it up; now I think just about anything with at least 6 inches of ground clearance could get there."

 

Yes the road is much better now than it used to be, but you must not have noticed all the 2 wheel drive passenger cars in the parking lot back in 2002. I've driven a Honda Civic there every year since 1991. In the old days you had to go very slow, keeping your tires on the high points in places so you would not high center and you had to negotiate big rocks and roots carefully but it was doable in a 2 wheel drive. A civic has about as little ground clearance as any car except maybe a low rider. I did see exhaust pipes on the ground once or twice from folks that did not know how to drive. I've had to get my shovel out to dig out people in 4 wheel drives who got in the ditch and couldn't get out. On Hwy 35 around Mt. Hood I've also passed many 4 wheel drives tits up on the side of the road after the first snow of the season.

 

One year when you could only drive to Morrison Creek CG due to snow there was one dude in a small lightweight Toyota pickup that had reduced the air in his fat tires. Because of the big tires and the light vehicle he was able to drive all the way to Cold Springs CG on top of the snow! His pickup was the only vehicle that did that. Everyone else used muscle power those last 3 miles.

 

There's more to driving than just the type of vehicle you drive. I do appreciate the improved road.

 

Those butterflies you mentioned are also on Mt. Shasta this year and last year I saw them on Shasta and South Sister. It seemed as if there were millions of them on Shasta last year.

 

About that fire, I was on the route when it started. The ranger women were near where the creek crosses the trail at appx 6800 or 7000 feet on Saturday evening watching the smoke and talking on their radios. The smoke looked like campfire smoke - small. By Sunday AM it was a little bigger but still not big. There was very little wind Saturday night or early Sunday AM. By 10:30 or so Sunday AM the fire was a raging inferno. All the TV news reports reported the lightning strike that caused the fire that weekend as if it happened that weekend. There wasn't a cloud in the sky anywhere near there Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The FS claimed the lightning occurred a week or two earlier and smoldered until that weekend. Maybe. I have my doubts. I suspect human causes.

 

Edited August 19, 2008 by max delta h