Mt Adams

The weekend of July 7th & 8th 15 of us hiked Mt. Adams in preparation for Mt Rainier. We left Seattle at 6 a.m. Saturday, drove 4.5 hours down to the Hood River area, checked in/bought permits at the Ranger Station and then drove to the trail head. We took off around 1:30 pm from 5600' and hiked up to "Lunch Counter" to camp at about 9000'. It was a pretty good challenge as it was HOT on the exposed slopes with sun reflecting off of the snow at every angle. (But it was hard to complain about the great weather!) We made it to camp around 6pm, set up tents (although there were quite a few people up there it didn't feel too crowded because there are little rock barriers all around (we didn't have to camp in the snow on this one). We had 2 man tents so we had our own little tent city for our group! Melted snow (or dug in the snow to find water already melted, genius!), made dinner and crashed! We were lucky with a very mild night and no wind. Up at 5:00 a.m. to attempt the summit. Crampons, check! Ice Ax, check! Helmet, check! Really uncomfortable boots, check! My group summitted 12,200' in about 2.5 hours, took the obligatory pictures (braving gale force winds) and prepared for some awesome glissading down. I tried the plastic bag technique but it didn't work that well, my butt got so cold! Back to camp, quick lunch, packed up and headed down.The lower portion as we approached the trail head got a little painful (as it always does, no matter how far you are from the car) because it was another hot day and a long time in the sun but all in all, a really fun trip! Now Mt. Baker this weekend!

Here is a pic of a subset of the group on th summit!!