View of the upper glacier from camp.
Adams Glacier
with Alex K, June 30-July 1, 2001
We got to the Killen Creek trailhead around 11:00, and arrived at High Camp in about 2.5 hrs. The trail was snowfree until after the PC trail, and even then snow was only in patches. There is a huge number of campsites scattered around; probably a hundred people could be camped around there without impacting each other much (unless you’re like that bunch that was there hollering and shouting until midnight.) We had a bunch of free time to hang around and enjoy the scenery, of course. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my cell phone to work at all up there. I don't know, it seems to me that in the last few years, cellular performance has gotten a lot worse.
On the hike in, the bear grass was in blooming, and quite beautiful. I’m surprised that no one uses that for an ornamental grass around here; I think it looks quite nice. Plenty of lupine, and small avalanche lilies, and around on the rocks where we camped, the ground was just covered with that tiny grey lupine, and these tiny little blue or white flowers.
The campsite had running water not far away; a twenty yard walk. Quite convenient, and nice to hear the tinkle of the water in the night. I filled my platypus with the water, and left it laying in the sun, thinking that the ultraviolet rays would kill any bacteria in it. Probably wishful thinking. But I never did get sick.
We ran into a lady with a very nice dog, named "Dammit." Her husband and some others were on the Adams Glacier. She said some very discouraging things about the weather; that there had been cirrus clouds, which usually indicate precipitation in the next day, and it was pretty cloudy on the summit. Then, around 5:00 the clouds started moving in, and they just swooped in amazingly fast! It was like a special effect in some movie the way they barreled in, and then visibility went to nothing. Just pea soup. Then, twenty minutes later, it was all clear again, and we could see the mountain, and before sunset, the lenticular cloud on the summit was gone, and it was crystal clear. When we left in the morning, there was some high haziness, but that went away, and it was totally clear, all night and all the next day.
We left camp around 4:30 AM Sunday (Canada Day!) and were at the base of the climb in about an hour. The approach is pretty obvious, and there were boot tracks to follow, but there are a number of open crevasses on the approach; it might have the most objective danger on the climb.
The glacier itself was in very good shape, very hard snow, icy towards the top. It’s a fairly constant 30-35 degree angle most of the way. It was easy to get around the obstacles on the way up. At the top are a couple of big crevasses, including a very impressive bergschrund with a 15’ thick snow bridge, but once that goes, the finish is going to be a challenge. Also, towards the top things are pretty icy, since it gets the afternoon sun there. We roped up, but didn’t set any pro. We just used ice axes; a second tool might have been convenient if you’re a worrier like me.
We topped out in around 6 hours; since it was my first time on Adams, I insisted on slogging the last half-mile or so to the true summit.
We descended the North Ridge, which is in (I guess) comparatively good shape. A number of parties had climbed it this weekend, including one group we met near the summit who’d come in to do the Lava Glacier headwall, but decided it was in bad shape (it looked pretty bad.) The N. Ridge seemed pretty twisty and crumbly to me, with plenty of exposure, where a slip on a loose bit of rock (and there's a LOT of loose rock!) could send you on a really long ride down onto the Lava Glacier. The route didn’t look very appealing to me, but Alex thought it might be worth doing, and there were sure a lot of people on it.
Seems like if you were going to do it, you'd want to start VERY early, when everything is still frozen in place. There are several campsites near the bottom of the N. Ridge, it’d be worthwhile camping there to save some time. We descended with one party of three who’d camped at the bottom of the ridge, and they made the summit in 3 1/2 hours.
Back at our camp, we ran into John Burroughs, the president of Cascade Designs, and his wife. He said that the Divide Creek trail starts higher and is a bit shorter access to the High Camp. The map appears to bear this out; I don’t know why everyone directs climbers to the Killen Creek trail.
Interestingly, there is a lot more volcanic activity around there than I had realized. We got some whiffs of sulfur near the summit, mostly around the big crevasses, but N. of the mountain are a couple of cinder cones, one with a big crater in it, and there is a big lava flow, that looks rather like the one by Bend. I had no idea that any of that was there.
Alex is very into the lightweight climbing philosophy, and does it well. His tent is a Bibler, which is quite small (too small for two comfortably, I think) and his sleeping bag weighs a pound and compresses as small as my down coat!
On the ascent, we saw the shadow of the mountain off into the west, much like my Hood experience. I guess it’s not as unusual as I’d thought, although it’s the first time I’d seen it. Though, how many times have I been up on a mountain at dawn, with the west visible? Well, last time we summitted Rainier, I guess.
This is the first time I’ve tried using the Platypus in my big Lowe pack, and it worked awfully well. I guess they’re prone to freezing, so that’s a downside on cold outings. They say you can blow the water back into it, and that helps some. Oddly, when I’d take a drink, the first mouthful would be cold, and the second would be warm. I guess the pack heated it up nicely.
Equipment notes: I climbed in my Reichle Eiger leather boots, and old-fashioned strap-on crampons. With the steep hard ice, the crampons actually slipped around the side of my boot as we were side-stepping up the glacier. A bit unsettling, to say the least. I subsequently got a pair of plastics, used, from Second Ascent, so I can finally use my Simond step-in crampons again. I got the Eigers several years ago, because REI advertised them as being compatible with step-in crampons. They worked fine, until after Mt. Stuart, and they finally broke in enough that they wouldn't hold the crampons anymore. So I was forced to dig out my old crampons and use them. But now on steep climbs, I'll take the plastics and not worry.