Mt. Adams - South Approach
Route Details
Area - Mt. Adams, WA
Access - Trailhead is at Cold Springs Campground (NF-8040 to NF-500). Road is covered in snow until usually around late May/early June. For this particular outing we were only able to drive as far as Morrison Creek Campground. See guides section below for more details.
Total Trip Time - 10-12 hours
Total Distance - 11 miles
Main Ski descent - 6800 ft
Elevation Gain/Loss - 6800 ft
Max Slope Angle - 45 °
Guides
FATMAP (below)
Backcountry Ski & Snowboard Routes: Washington by Martin Volken
Local Beta - The town of Hood River is a great spot nearby to spend the night, pick-up last minute items (Pure Stoke is a great litle outdoor store in town), and there are many restuarants to choose from. Many climbers camp at the trailhead, and the Cold Springs Campground can get pretty packed once the road is snow free. The road to the trailhead isn't in terrible shape as of late, but it helps to have all wheel drive and there are a few sections where having a little clearance helps.
Trip Report 5/12/2024
The Backcountry Ski & Snowboard Routes: Washington guidebook introduces the south approach and descent of Mount Adams by saying "for those looking for a great Cascade volcano skiing experience on relatively safe terrain, the southeast shoulder of Mount Adams is hard to beat." Antoine and I had decided to take advantage of the perfect weather by climbing Mt. Hood Saturday followed by Mt. Adams on Sunday. It was somewhat gutsy. Mt. Hood had been in good shape the day before, but 12k vertical feet in 2 days is a lot. Fortunately, I had just purchased the Majesty Superwolf Carbon Skis and was excited to see how much the reduced weight would help on big days like these.
The previous day on Mt. Hood had been a little rough. Antoine broke his ski, and my binding pre-released leading to a yardsale on refrozen sastrugi. By the time we started climbing Mt. Adams at 1am Sunday we were running on fumes. Helping to lift our spirits the northern lights danced above our heads for the second night in a row.
We woke up at our hotel in Hood River at 11:45pm, getting just over 4 hours or sleep. The beta in town was that the road was snow free to Morrison Creek Campground, but impassable thereafter. We hoped the heat from the past two days had open more road, but after a little over an hour drive we found the beta to be spot-on and we parked in the middle of Morrison Creek Campground. It was just after 1am by the time we left the car. We started with skis and boots on our backs, which ended up proving to be smart with over a mile of hiking on dirt road ahead of us. After a little over a mile we ditched the tennis shoes and began skinning a more direct approach.
For the first 3k ft we maintained a decent pace of just over an hour per 1k ft. There were a couple climbing parties ahead of us that had decided to climb more climbers right towards the South Butte, but we stayed left and made better time, eventually gaining on both groups.
Above 8k feet the exposure began to grow on both the left and right side of the ridge. Ski crampons gripping the refrozen snow, I made sure to get a solid placement with each step.
We continued to set a decent pace. Not as fast as we would have liked, but by 6:30am we were around 8.8k feet, avergaing about 700 ft/hr. We were both in good spirits and excited to soon have the sun on our face.
Unfortunately, the clementines didn't give us navigational superpowers. We choose poorly to throw our skis on our backs and head straight up the climbers left ridge towards Pikers Peak (11,598 ft). What had looked like a boot pack up the ridge ended up being a climbers glissade from the day before when the snow had been much softer. We climbed side to side in crampons (some call the French technique), postholing every few steps as the snow began to soften under the rising sun. It took us easily 3.5 hours to climb the remaining 2.5k feet.
A group that had camped at Lunch Counter the night before passed us right below Piker Peak. They had smartly waited for the snow to soften enough to skin up the steepest section below Pikers Peak. We followed behind them as we approach Pikers Peak at 11,598 ft.
We decided to ski down from Pikers Peak rather than make the treck over to the summit. Antoine's girlfriend had a birthday dinner he needed to get back in time for, and we both felt more than happy to let that be the excuse for locking our heels down and getting some sweet spring turns.
