Location: SE Washington, 5-7 hours from Seattle depending on how lucky you get with traffic.
Mt. Adams is 37 miles east of Mt. St. Helens and about 50 miles south of Mt. Rainier.
Route: South Climb Trail (least technical on the mountain and most popular).
Miles: 12
Elevation Gain: 6,700 feet
Summit: 12,276 feet, second highest peak in Washington behind Mt. Rainier
Gear/ Expertise needed:
- Normal overnight backpacking gear
- Possibly 4 season tent depending on conditions and time of year
- Extra fuel to melt snow for water
- Crampons
- Ice Axe
- Waterproof gear
- Knowledge of how to self arrest/ safely glissade
Campsite with Mt. Adams in the background
After doing Mt. St. Helen's I was a little turned off to doing Mt. Adam's. It looked so much bigger and scarier, and Helen's had moments that really scared me. A couple things stand out that made Helen's not the best experience for me. We started early- 5:00 AM or so, but by the time we neared the summit, the snow was so soft and on steep parts this was scary. We also went down a super steep glissade shoot that made me gain air and was not fun. All of this made me scared to do Adam's as it was much bigger and tougher than Helen's. It was the week before our big wonderland hiking trip as well so I didn't want to commit to a big climb the weekend before that. I also broke my toe in the middle of summer so all plans were in the air. The toe healed, friends started making plans to do Adam's and serious FOMO (fear of missing out) got the best of me, good or bad. So I tentatively said yes. Weather would have to be PERFECT. No wind. No precipitation. Well the stars aligned and this is what the forecast called for. A group of 5 of us committed and made our way to Mt. Adam's.
The first order of business was making sure we had all proper gear. I rented crampons from Outdoor Research and it was $27 for 4 days, since I couldn't get them back until Monday. We left Friday at 4PM from Downtown Seattle. We didn't run into too much traffic heading south. You have to essentially drive south all the way to Portland and then head east and make your way back in to Washington. Mt. Adam's is quite the adventure to get to. We stopped for dinner, made a Walmart stop, gas, and then hit the ranger station up. Before the ranger station when you cross the border there is a $1 silly toll. At the ranger station you have to register yourself (about 45 minutes before Mt. Adam's). It is $15 for the weekend. You'll need exact cash after hours for this. You will also need to pick up you "blue bag" or "poop bag". There are no toilets on Mt. Adam's and you can't dig a hole. Using this bag is quite the experience in itself. We left the ranger station and made a wrong turn getting to the mountain and eventually made it to Morrison Creek campground. We didn't want to drive all the way to the trailhead at midnight with it so dark. Morrison Creek is an overgrown horse camp. There are at least 12 sites here and a pit toilet. We set up camp and almost went to sleep. I was trying to take some night shots and heard something then saw 2 eyes staring at me from the woods. In true fashion I screamed and jumped in the car. We held our headlamps on it for at least 20 minutes trying to figure out what it was. I swore it was some kind of cat. It ended up being a dear. We finally went to sleep after 1 AM. I seem to never sleep well outside. I got probably 4-5 hours of sleep that night. We didn't rush waking up and made our way to the trailhead. We got there probably by 10 and hit the trail by 11. The parking lot was packed with cars. You can also camp up here. It's also important to note that the road getting up is super rough and high clearance is strongly reccomended.
Road up to the trailhead
Pack ready to go!
I recently got asked to be an ambassador for Wildhorn Outfitters. It is a great gear company with even better ethics behind it. So far they have sent me trekking poles, microfiber towels and a hammock! All have been great. I got to put these poles to the test this weekend. They are super light weight, fun color, and easily packable. A+ in my book.
There was a huge fire that happened around Mt. Adam's in 2012. It's left a lot of the forest burnt. The beginning portion of the trail is all burnt. It eventually gets to rocky/ dirt trail. There are also a ridiculous amount of campsites along the trail since it is in national forest. Our goal was Lunch Counter, which is at 9,200 feet. We had at least 4 miles and almost 3,000 gain to do on Saturday . We eventually got to snow fields a little before Lunch Counter. At this time in the day they were super soft and melted. It wasn't very steep, but we were still sliding around a bit.
Right as we were approaching lunch counter we ran into ranger Guy. He was super nice and informative for our abundance of questions. We asked where nice campsites were, if there was running water (which there was). We hiked up a little more towards the base of the summit and eventually found a nice spot big enough for two tents. The 3 of us relaxed at our camp spot. We still had 2 more coming. They were about 2 hours behind us. We left a walkie talkie at the car to communicate with them along the way up.
Our friends finally made it to camp and we then practiced glissading and self arresting as two in the group had not done it before. We found some slopes nearby and did it until they felt comfortable using their ice axe.
After that we went to search for the running water source at Lunch Counter. It was more SE of our camp spot and down a ways. We eventually found a run off stream. We were lucky one of us brought a filter. It took us a long time to filter enough for all 5 of us for the night and next day. It began to get cold so we went back to camp and made dinner and then took in the amazing sunset.
After a long, exhausting day you think I would pass out easily and sleep well. Never the case. I laid there and tossed and turned. Just couldn't get comfortable and sleep. Another night of probably 4 hours of sleep with a 4:30 AM wake up call. The alarm went off and I peeled myself up, donned my headlamp and half hazardly started getting ready. First contacts, change of clothes, then open myself to the world and make coffee and down a dry, unpalatable bar. Breakfast is so hard for me in the mountains. Nothing ever sounds good. Our goal was to leave by 5:30, but it ended up being 6. We looked up at the mountain and saw the string of headlamps already going. A reminder to get our but in gear. We started hiking and then put on our crampons right away as we hit snow. This was all of our first time putting them on. I struggled getting mind on perfectly, but eventually got it. We were actually moving by 6:30 then.
The crampons were AMAZING in the firm snow. It was so easy to walk on up, until it wasn't because of thin area and exhaustion. The climb to Piker's Peak (false summit) is not an easy one. I it is steep and takes a couple hours in itself. There isn't a lot of good places to stop along the way. We tried to just power through it and make our way up. Within a couple hours we made it to Piker's Peak. It's pretty defeating to climb for hours and then see another huge climb in front of you to the actual summit. You actually lose 600 feet and then have to gain about another 1000 to the summit from here. We saw everyone else taking off their crampons and swapping out their ice axe for trekking poles so we did the same.
The summit was finally in sight and I got really emotional. I think it was just the realization that this was actually happening. Something I told myself I couldn't do a month prior was now in arms grasp. I also felt extremely proud in this moment. This had been the hardest physical pursuit I had taken on to date and here I was at the summit.
The ascent took me officially 4 hrs 30 min. We hung out at the top for about half an hour and than started to make the descent. We made it back to Piker's Peak and then donned our glissading gear with rain pants and ice axe. We walked down the rocks on the side for a couple hundred feet as we kept hearing the glissade shoots weren't safe at the top. We hopped in once they looked safe. This was the funnest glissading I've ever done. They weren't too icy, steep or fast. I controlled my speed all the down. We eventually got off when we got to some rocks and then hiked down to camp. We quickly took down camp and packed everything up and hiked out. The hike out was long and monotonous. The day was a total of 11 hours with all of our breaks and stops. We made it to the car by 5:30. We hit the road and were in Seattle again after midnight.
I even made a mediocre attempt at a video from this weekend! First one ever.
In closing, Mt. Adams was amazing and more than I'd hope for. I'd done better than I'd hope for. I'd enjoyed it more than expected. It left me wanting more. This can't be it. This cant be the biggest peak I climb or the hardest thing I do. The best is yet to come.