NW SPRING: Medville, Ogden ski Rainier, Adams
Work season seems to approach as quick as the snow melts. But before my main ski buddies Jon Johnston, Jack Hanna and Laura Odgen headed south to Crested Butte for a summer of carpentry and painting, we decided to spend some time in Washington and try to cap off the season with Rainier and Adams. The boys left a few days earlier to try Liberty Ridge, however they found the route so wind scoured and icy that an old set of ski tracks stood up from the surface of the snow. Two days later we all met at the Paradise parking lot on the south side of the mountain with a plan to climb and ski the Fuhrer Finger Route.
Despite being glaciated, this aesthetic route is pretty straight forward. We left the parking lot (5,400 ft.) around 3pm and made it to our camp above the Wilson Glacier (9,000 feet) just as the sun started to set. From our camp we could see Mt. Adams lit up in the alpenglow.
The temperature was cool enough that we didn’t have to leave camp until 5:30 the next morning. Casting wary looks to the hanging seracs above, we hastily crossed the Wilson Glacier. Then it was off with the skis, on with the crampons and on to the stairmaster for the next seven hours. Climbers love the kind of conditions we had—firm, yet just soft enough to allow the crampon some bite into the snow. The snow didn’t soften as we ascended and a fierce wind picked up as we neared the top. After going as fast as my breath would allow (which seemed like slow-motion) we hit the Columbia Crest at 14,411 feet. Despite putting in a full day of work to get there, we didn’t linger long on the summit for fear that all of our gear would blow away. With out so much as a summit picture we hustled out of there.
Cold, strong wind unfortunately meant cold, hard snow. It was survival skiing across the frozen fist-sized ice blocks and crevasses on the top of the mountain. The snow softened a little as we descended into the Fuhrer’s Finger Couloir. After close to forty minutes of skiing, we were finally awarded perfect corn turns for the next 4,000 feet.
After recharging the batteries on Bambridge Island for a couple days, Laura and I headed out for the second part of our mission—Mt. Adams. Everyone we had talked to made it seem as if it was an easy mountain. “If you’ve skied Rainier, it’s no problem,” someone said. “It’s straight forward. Pretty much a highway up,” we heard.
Most people begin climbing Adams from the south side at 4,500-5,000 feet. We started at 3,000 because the road hadn’t melted out completely. There had been a major wind event in the area and the snow was covered with pine needles, sticks and downed branches. There were also big snowmobile whoop-de-doos. It made for slow going and we were wishing we had our sleds. We continued up the road until we hit 4,500 feet and set up camp for the night.
We got up at dawn and continued up, not entirely sure we were on route. By 9am we emerged onto the alpine and could see the South Rib of Adams. We managed to skin up until about 9,000 feet, at which point the snow became too firm for even ski crampons.
We sat for a bit, thought about the long hike out and then egged each other on to climb just another 1,000 feet. We hit the 11,000-ft. mark. The first false summit sat just above that point, however we made the decision to call it a day. By 2pm, the snow had not softened. On the descent, the snow stayed firm until around the 8,000-ft. mark, after which the snow improved and we found creamy turns towards the base of the alpine.
The slog from camp back to the truck only took two hours, but most of it was spent fantasizing about snowmobiles, easy travel, and how good some Mexican food would taste…