6/28/03
I'd been singing the praises of the Southwest Chutes on Adams with Jon for a few years. It was time that he and I gave it a poke. I left work early on a Friday and planned to meet up with Jon and Allen (coming up from Bend) as high on the access road as conditions would permit. We were thinking that the Morrison Creek Campground would probably be the end of the line for us. I gave Jon a buzz from a pay-phone in Hood River. The good news: Matt had given Jon an email indicating that the road was clear all the way to the Cold Springs trailhead. The bad news: they weren't going to be leaving Bend as early as planned. Didn't much matter - we were planning a single day push early Saturday anyway.
| Adams from outside of Trout Lake. The Chutes is the long continuous line from the right shoulder of the summit downward towards about 7 o'clock. |
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I arrived at Cold Springs at about 5:30. Pretty impressive parade of folks streaming into the lot all evening. The news that the road had opened must have spread pretty quickly - seemed like any parties that had been contemplating their annual Adams trips descended on the place at once. I laid claim to a pretty broad pulloff to accomodate Jon's camper & watched the masses come in all evening.
At about 10pm I'd actually gone ahead and spread my bivvy sack and sleeping bag - still no Jon & Allen. Maybe an accident? I'd just settled in when they spotted the 'Oldsmo-4-wheeler.' Jon found a good groove for the rig and we settled in for the night after a few-beer nightcap. Jon and Allen were actually squarely in the middle of the arriving pack - people continued to stream in until after 2am.
We rose at about 2:45 and were on our way at about 3:15. Seems like continuous snow began just short of 6K, but the snow was so firm and the route so well-trodden that we just kept going with the foot-transit. By the time we reached the base of the Crescent Glacier the place was already bright with pre-dawn light.
| Jon and Allen approaching 9500 ft. The long shadow of the mountain behind them. |
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Adams really is the epic slog of all epic slogs - especially if it's done as a single-day push as we were doing. As we passed by the Lunch Counter we could see other parties dotting the route ahead of us.
| Breaktime! Jon and I - still a long way below the false summit bathed in dawn light upper left. (Allen Light photo) |
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| Jon punchin' it on the way up - Mt. Hood in the background (Allen Light photo) |
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| Morning light on toddler-sized early summer suncups. |
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The pitch below the false summit featured the normal and customary reliable set of steps kicked into the snow, which made for easy climbing. There's something really cool about switching the brain off and climbing steps interminably - sort of a trance / meditation thing . . . Whatever.
| 'The Jons' passing through about 10-Grand. |
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We actually reached the false summit pretty early - at about 9am. Plenty of time to still give the summit a push. Allen was a bit of a ways ahead, so I waited for Jon at the false summit. I presumed Allen was continuing on to the summit pitch. Already the predictable weekend carnival going on at the false summit . . . people lazing around, catching rays, etc.
| Smiling on arrival at the false summit |
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Jon arrived at the false summit and we started to cross the broad plateau below the summit pitch, but Jon's knee was a little too flamed out - he decided to stay there at the false summit and wait for Allen and I to return.
| The "summit anthill" (Allen Light photo) |
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I cruised up the remainder of the pitch to the summit fully expecting to see Allen at any moment. Half way up - no Allen. Summit crowd - no Allen. Crud. I begin to realize that Allen was probably still below waiting for a rondezvous with Jon and I.
| The buried summit shed with other enthusiasts on their way up. False Summit visible below |
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The snow up top still hadn't really started to soften, but I went ahead and strapped on the boards and made my way down the teeth-chattering neve' . . . not doing particularly good for style points on the boiler-plate! Noon or later is probably the rule for summit pokes off of Adams.
About 1/2-way down the summit pitch Allen calls down to me as I ski down past him. He's on his way up to the top and indicates that Jon is still waiting at the false summit.
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Allen on the Summit of Mt. Adams - 12,200 ft.
Mt. Rainier in the background. |
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After Allen's return and a bit of comic searching (Jon was actually on some rocks below the false summit hard-asleep!) we all connect again at the top of the Chutes.
Still no one starting their descents at this point - a bit after 11am. The snow feels like it's beginning to soften up so we make our way to the top of the line.
The descent down the Chutes from the false summit was awesome as always, but a bit on the spicy side - a few choice spills, chills, and thrills kept things interesting, to say the least. Something about a fall followed by steady acceleration tends to keep lots of neurons firing for both observers and observees!
| Jon sans-ski after an impromptu toe-release and ejection of his left ski. The ski went for quite a ride but actually catapulted and planted in the snow about 300 feet below before it had a chance to strike a rock and shatter. |
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| Allen shreddin' it up towards the top of the Chutes |
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| Jon regaining faith in that left ski. |
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| Doing some exacting quality checks on late-June summer corn (Allen Light photo) |
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| Allen continues to lay 'em down further down the chutes. |
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| The entirety of the route visible above. Allen in foreground - Jon still working on his signatures on the little knob in the background. |
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The snow really started to get softer toward the bottom of the Chutes and started to runnel up as well. We decided to try to do as high a traverse to regain the standard climber's route as we can. We figured the Round-the-Mountain trail probably wasn't melted out yet anyway. No matter what the plan, the egress from the Chutes always seems to involve 4-5 times the number of drainage crossings that you feel there would need to be to get back to the standard route.
| Jon on the mad-cap traverse to return to the main climber's route from the base of the Chutes |
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Inevitably we rejoined the route and made our way back down to Cold Springs -
just after 3pm. Over 12 hours door-to-door so we were all pretty tapped. I
later admitted a pull off from the road to catch some quick zz's before I
even reached Hood River! I think we were all pretty crushed.