[TR] Mt. Adams - Adams Glacier 7/10/2001

[Layback]

Trip: Mt. Adams - Adams Glacier

 

Date: 7/10/2001

 

Trip Report:

In the winter of 2000/2001 I took up ice climbing on the east coast. I had spent a lot of weekends with Alec climbing in New Hampshire at Frankenstein Cliffs and in Vermont at Woodbury Cliff. Weeknight sessions were spent at an iced-up road-cut in CT. There's something ironically cool about top-roping ice under the light on a cold winter night. This was all good fun, but we wanted something more.

 

Alec and I were both longing for an alpine ascent in a great range. As an east coast kid, who had never climbed anything outside of the northeast, I wanted something "big and noteworthy". A few years earlier Alec had taken a course with Alpine Ascents in Washington State. He had gotten up some classics like the Colemen/Demming on Baker, the Beckey route on Liberty Bell, and a few others. A trip to the Cascades just made sense.

 

Together, Alec and I planned a 3-week trip to Seattle. The trip covered most of July, from 7/3/2001 – 7/25/2001. Mt. Rainier, via the Fuhrer Finger, was the route that we planned to build the trip around. The goal was to work our way up to that route. The first peak we climbed upon arrival was Mt. Daniel, via the Daniel Glacier. We experienced great weather and had a wonderful time.

 

After that, we both felt like we wanted something more technical and a little higher to acclimatize ourselves for the trip up Rainier. A copy of Rock & Ice had nice things to say about the Adams Glacier and Cascade Classics Volume I seemed to agree. As we drove down I-5 Alec went over the finer points of crevasse rescue and I perused some drawings in a book. It seemed easy enough. That night we car camped somewhere near the Killen Creek Trailhead. After we both packed, Alec went to bed and I pulled off the most intense cramming session of my adult life. I read “Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue” published by the Mountaineers.

 

In the morning, with a “proper and thorough” appreciation of crevasse rescue under my belt, Alec and I set off for what would be among my favorite climbs I have ever done. The approach on Killen Creek trail proved to be a gentle, sandy trail covered in pumice from a former eruption. We travelled through open meadows filled with lush flowers and beautiful views of our route. Along the way, I learned a great lesson: moraines are not a shortcut. They are miserable and best avoided, especially in the heat of the day.

 

 

We pulled into camp at the edge of the Adams Glacier sometime in the late afternoon. After probing for crevasses, we set up camp and had a late lunch. With full bellies, we roped up and found a crevasse where Alec was able to help bring to life the lessons I had learned via the previous night’s cram session. This was a whole new world for me and it was very cool. After a few tries, I had 2-man crevasse rescue dialed in. We went back to camp, had a nice dinner, watched the sun set against the backdrop of Rainier, and went to bed.

 

 

At 4:00 a.m. our alarms went off, but we promptly reset them and went back to sleep. So much for an alpine start... We finally pulled ourselves out of bed sometime around 6:00 a.m. and marched off towards the base of the climb.

 

The first 800’ of the climb was relatively mild. Except for the fact that is was covered with snow, that section of the Adams Glacier reminded me of a Class II Water Ice Climb in New Hampshire, called Willey’s Slide. Simulclimbing, Alec and I made good time. Soon the climb steepened and it began feeling more intense.

 

In the lead, I set up a belay station and brought Alec in. He offered to lead the first pitch. More than a little nervous I was happy to hand over the reigns. Alec led a few pitches stepping over crevasses and placing screws in seracs, as we worked our way up the glacier. Soon I got up the nerve to lead a few pitches. In a few hours time we came to what remains to this day the biggest bergschrud I have ever laid eyes on. As we passed the ‘scrund on the right, I looked to my left and peered into a hole the size of a football field, capable of eating houses. It’s entirely possible that time has intensified this memory, but what remains is vivid and impressive.

 

With the domicile-eating-bergschrund behind us, we climbed up a few hundred more yards where the slope angle began to relent. Alec brought me in, and for the first time in a few hours we both relaxed. At 12,000’ we had passed all of the major difficulties of the route. We took off our helmets, put away our second tools, and had lunch. From there, it was a victory march 500’ vertical feet to the summit.

 

 

After some photos at the summit, we descended the North Ridge, which is a notoriously chossy route. A party we had run into the day before had plans to climb it. If ascending the route is anything like the decent, I can’t imagine that a climb via that route is any fun. Out of water and with the afternoon heat beating down upon us, Alec and I slipped and slided our way down 3rd and 4th class terrain, building blisters on my shins as we went. When I finally stepped off the ridge fully dehydrated, I watched as the first mountain goats I ever laid eyes one, made their way down the ridge at a pace that I could have only dreamed of matching. It was poetry in motion for an east cost kid like me.

 

Back in camp in the afternoon sun I put on my big down parka, and tried to get warm. I had burned a lot of calories throughout the day, but had insufficient caloric intake and water consumption, and now I was paying for it. I ate an entire dehydrated meal, rammen noodles, beef jerky, and some candy but I didn’t entirely warm up until the next morning. It was on this trip that I learned the value of proper nutrition en route.

 

The next day, Alec and I made our way back to the car in a trance. Limping, with now fully developed blisters on my shins, I was so happy to see our big white midsized rental car waiting for us. We climbed into the car and set off with Moby’s “Play” album blaring. After about 30 minutes of tunes cranking on the radio as we descended logging roads I finally broke my trance and said to Alec, “That was awesome”. In a trance also, he just nodded.

 

 

It took two weeks for my blisters to fully heal. Alec and I never did make it up the Fuhrer Finger but we went back to CT with quite the prize. Though not difficult by any means, it remains for me one of the hardest things I've ever done relative to my skill level at the time. The feeling I got from it was both amazing and hard for me to repeat to this day.

 

He and I would come back to the Cascades two more times for a total of 4 more weeks over the next 12 months. We never did climb Rainier on any of those trips but we both fell in love with the area. Alec eventually graduated medical school and became a resident at an ER in Oregon. Susie and I would meet and move to WA State a few years later.

 

[Water]

cool TR from the portrayal perspective-there is definitely something unique about a retrospective (10 years later) re-telling. Adding to that fact, the place you were coming from prior to the trip, out east/without having been to the NW, really sets the stage for how meaningful and impacting such a trip would be. thanks for sharing.

[genepires]

film camera?

 

nice job getting up that.

[Layback]

Thanks guys. It's possible that I had as much fun writing that as I did climbing it.

 

Gene - At the time I had a HP PhotoSmart P&S digital camera that my parents had given me for Christmas that year (that probably shot images at around 1,000 mpx). It went through rechargeable lithium ion batteries so darned quick that it seemed silly to me. I honestly never thought they'd catch on. It's been fun scanning some of those old photos as I'm sure you know.