Adams via Mazama Gl. 7/24-7/26

[builder206]

I climbed Adams via Mazama Glacier. Day 2 was the summit. Day 3 was scheduled to make the return leisurely & comfortable.

 

Sunrise is a beautiful camp. The Klickitat icefall and The Castle are spectacular. At 4AM, Venus was brilliant in the east and Jupiter was high & bright in the west. The Milky Way arched through the zenith and the Pleiades were high above Yakima’s lights.

 

After ascending past a couple large crevasse areas we jumped two crevasses then had to traverse left to find a snowbridge across a mammoth slot above the smaller ones. The snow ran out at about 9,400’, barely higher than the Lunch Counter. We made a rising traverse west across Suksdorf Ridge to 9,700' at the snowfield above the L.C. then a sharply rising traverse across the snow to pick up the trade route at 10,800’. Glissaded about 1,000’ from the false summit to start the traverse back.

 

Beautiful weather. Clouds moved in each afternoon but dropped no precip. We were briefly in a whiteout roping up to descend the glacier but it was no big deal.

 

There is a new women’s fashion trend. On the South Ridge I saw not 1, not 2, but 3 different women wearing a Mounties-style getup of a white baselayer under blue jean shorts.

 

FYI a good driving shortcut from Seattle is to take I-5 to 12, 12 to Randle, then FS 23 55 miles to Trout Lake. FS 23 is mostly paved but there is a section about 10 or 12 miles long that is unpaved but pretty good quality.

 

On approach

Sunrise Camp

Lake filling vent of subsidiary cinder cone

Mazama Glacier above camp

Klickitat Icefall

The Castle

Mountain goat convention

 

I forgot to check the charge on my TWO camera batteries. Both conked out. The last photo I got was us roping up on summit day. Others in the party took photos but they are theirs so I can't post them. I topped out, honest!

Edited July 27, 2009 by builder206

[builder206]

Clarification: there are two large crevasse areas on the left-ish side of the glacier not far above camp. We launched to the right, stayed well right of the glacier's midline (but not all the way to the right) until we passed them, then moved left to the centerline of the glacier.

 

From there the ascent was straightforward until we got to the monster slot. That's where we moved well left to cross the big 'un on a snowbridge. It was above that where we had to jump the two smaller crevasses.

 

The word "jump" is misleading. They weren't standing broad jumps, more like one big vigorous step that you wanted to stick hard. No big thing.