Mt. Adams is located in Washington state with an elevation of 12281 ft. and a prominence of 8116 ft, making it one of USA’s ultra-prominent peaks.
The trip began as an invitation to visit my friend Stanley’s cabin in Seabeck, WA. Located on the Peugot Sound, this cabin was the perfect place for a vacation away, with a stunning view of both the water and the snow capped Olympic Range. After seeing the beauty of the area, when I was invited back for a wilderness adventure, the obvious answer was yes. After some discussion, we decided on Mt. Adams.
I arrived at the Seattle Airport (SEA) airport July 4th, 2013, rented the car and went to the cabin to pack. We left early in the morning around 6AM on July 5th. We drove from Seattle south through Portland and the Columbia River Gorge and arrived at the mountain only to find that the road was blocked due to snow, leaving us in a conundrum. We thought about running the snowdrifts with our AMAZING Chevy Aveo, but both subconsciously knew that was a bad idea.
To solve our problem, and keep us out of the off-roading business, a truck arrived with some dudes and snowmobiles on the back (shown in the picture above) and couldn’t get by due to traffic on the side of the road. Stanley and I watched in amazement as they picked up a full size Jeep Wrangler (also shown) and moved it out of the way. We tried the same with two others, and failed. They plowed through the snowdrifts clearing some tire tracks for us to slide through, and we parked roadside at an empty spot. Because we couldn’t reach the trail head parking lot, we walked about a mile before reaching the entrance to the trail. We were both ready to get our climb on, so the trail head was a welcome site.
We began hiking at an excellent pace. The glacier boots I had on weren’t great on the bare ground due to the reinforced sole, so it was relieved when we hit regular snow. The air wasn’t too thin yet, and the temperature was a pleasant ~55 degrees.
After hiking about two hours, we were passed by a couple with their dog and some ski’s. More on that later. It was also about this time that we realized we weren’t following a trail, there were no signs, and we may have a problem on the way back. We said “oh well” and decided we would navigate back with a topographical map. The pictures above was the “trail”.
The hike up towards “Lunch Counter”, where we would set base camp, was fantastic. We would occasionally turn to see the rest of the world shrink in size as we moved higher. The snow was fairly dry, and the air was clean and breezy. Couldn’t ask for better. To make things even better, the higher we moved, the more Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens came into view. The trail became steep and mostly scree at Lunchcounter.
Lunch Counter turned out to be very rocky with not a-lot of flat ground for tents. Luckily some previous hikers had formed some flat spot and wind breaks by stacking rocks. We picked a spot and enjoyed the view. There were quite a few other hikers up here, maybe 15 or so, also planning on spending the night. As we watched the sun set, we watched a couple latecomers hiking a steep side path up to the summit, even after the sunset. While it was a peaceful view for us, I’m sure those two hikers didn’t share our opinion. We watched the sunset over Pikers Peak, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. The view was stunning.
We eventually went to sleep at approximately 10 PM, as the sun sets a little bit later at the high altitude. Day one comprised of approximately 6 miles of hiking, and ~4,000 vertical feet.
Continue to Summit Day on Page 2!