As a part of the quest to collect all of the Cascade volcanoes you need to climb Mt Adams. Like most of them it is pretty big and has lots of route options. On Adams, I believe that the majority of ascents go from the south side however, and from that side it is pretty much just a scree slog. We on the other hand had approached from the Northwest. At one time we had entertained splitting our big crew, and one group would ascend the Adams Glacier, and the other team the North Cleaver. This was back in 1977 so I can’t recall all of the details very clearly but for whatever reason we ended up in deciding to all do the Cleaver.
It was July 2nd and still pretty early in the season. There were a whopping eight of us all together. We had a fantastic campsite in the meadows which we had used in the past. There is this wonderful curved rock there that makes a great recliner. Those of you who have been there will know the rock I am talking about. Those meadows ranked up there with my most favourite mountain places. Even in the late seventies as when we were there, the area was showing real signs of trail erosion and overuse; I can’t help but think of what it’s like today. If my memory serves me correctly this is also pretty much right along the Pacific Crest Trail, and was justifiably a popular area.
Since I can’t remember too much about the actual climbing details I will pad out this story with some interesting factoids about Mt Adams. It is the second highest peak in Washington State, clocking in at 3,757m. One historical point of interest is in regards to mining, and it actually ties into the climbing once we get to that. Sometime in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s a person filed mining claims on the summit area. For sulphur. A mule trail was constructed to the top via the south side and a drilling machine was hauled up, and test pits were drilled. Some sulphur was actually mined and brought back down the mountain by the pack animals. The quality and amount of the ore was never enough to make the scheme economically viable, although periodic attempts were made to do so all the way up until 1959. It is somewhat ironic that Adams being the remotest of the Cascade volcanoes is the only one to have been commercially exploited for natural resources.
The mine however was not the only structure on the summit. A fire lookout was built on the summit in the 1920’s and was actually manned for a number of years. That would have been some gig; being on fire watch way up there.
“Well how will I see any fires? There’s nothing but fog out there”. “In a couple of days it’ll all blow away and you’ll be able to see for a hundred miles in every direction, don’t worry”. But I didn’t believe it. I remembered Han Shan talking about the fog on Cold Mountain, how it never went away; I began to appreciate Han Shan’s hardihood. Happy and Wally went out with me and we spent some time putting up the anemometer pole and doing other chores, then Happy went in and started a crackling supper on the stove frying Spam and eggs. We drank coffee deep and had a good rich meal
Jack Kerouac – the Dharma Bums
Okay…. Back to the climbing stuff…
We turned in pretty early that night because we were doing the official alpine start. I think we probably planned for an earlier departure but we finally got away from camp at 0245. The climb itself is real easy but it is not exactly simple. It should be no harder than class 2, but it’s common to get into class 3 or even some class 4 terrain. Route finding can be tricky especially when navigating by head torch as we were… 1977 style mind you… no fancy halogen or LED here, just the old Wonder light. Fortunately we also had the benefit of a full moon. We were doing a lot of weaving back and forth on both sides of the ridge, always aiming for the simplest ground. I could see how it would be real easy to actually get into some actual trouble by getting off route and into some steep, serious and dangerous situations. We were extremely conscious of rock fall as well because the whole edifice was nothing more than a pile of manky choss.
We slowly picked our way up the ridge and soon realized that the wind was also picking up, and considerably so. Before long it was just howling. It was a struggle for us to even remain upright at times. This ranks easily as the windiest climb that I have ever been on. We estimated that the wind must have been blowing easily at 80 kph with gusts well in excess of that. This coupled with the altitude we were at, made it exceptionally cold as well. Most of us had heavy down parkas but even so it was dangerously cold. One of our crew was not equipped for this and at around 2,700m Don wisely decided to turn back and descend. It was too bad, but it just wasn’t safe for him to continue and he recognised that. This was about 0425 and we still had just over 1000m to go in order to reach the summit. Those metres were hard won under the conditions and it took us another five hours or so to reach the top. I don’t mind saying that I was really dragging my arse by this time. We decided to rope up on the snow and ice portions above the ridge and the ropes were blowing horizontally. This was just so incredible.
DM, Offwidth, Ross
We were well above the sea of clouds and all we could see were the cones of St. Helens, Mt Hood and Mt Rainier in the distance. There was no chance of lingering any time on the summit because of the wind. We probably stayed a total of five minutes before we got the hell out of there. On the summit plateau however, is the link back to the mining story. We could detect a strong sulphur smell, which I thought was kind of amazing considering the high winds. It gives one pause to also think about the volcanic activity of the peak. Mt Adams is considered potentially active, and although it has not erupted in over 1,400 years it is definitely not extinct either. The science guys estimate that the mountain has had at least 7 eruptions since the mountain was formed.
Our return to camp was uneventful and it only took us about 4 hours greatly aided by gravity and daylight to reverse our steps and to find ourselves back in Killen Meadows, surprised to see a dusting of snow.
I need to thank my old buddy Ross for his note taking, memory, and photo’s. I wouldn’t have been able to cobble together this story without them.