After four fabulous days sea kayaking in the San Juan Islands, the three of us plus my dad drove south. We took a scenic route through the Cascades and Mt. St. Helens, our bodies (especially arms. side note: my arms are HUGE) enjoying a much needed rest. After we had taken in all the sites, we headed towards Mt. Adams. The road was narrow and tunneled through a never ending forest of evergreens that towered a hundred feet in the air. It only got narrower as we drove the increasingly windy dirt road; houses disappeared, turns got sharper, and the air got thinner. At about 5,700 feet above sea level we reached base camp. It was 8pm, just enough time to eat and go to bed in order to be up at 4:30am.
4:30am came far too soon. We awoke in total darkness and reluctantly got out of our toasty sleeping bags. We gulped down our coffee (Sophia ate chocolate), ate some oatmeal, gathered our gear and by 6:00am were on our way.
The first couple miles weren't too bad; it was a nice wide trail that slowly climbed the mountain, slightly boring but easy on the legs. As we continued up, the trees disappeared and the trail became narrower. The packed dirt became loose volcanic gravel and rocks. The trail became steep and snow started to appear. We took a break around 7am to watch the sunrise and allow our bodies to acclimate to the 1500 vertical feet we'd climbed.
We spent a bit more time scrambling up the loose volcanic rock and then reached the edge of a vast snow field. This is where our crampons came in handy. We strapped in and began the climb. This part of the hike started at 9,400 feet above sea level and went to 11,400 ft in a very short distance, so we were hiking at a seriously steep angle. Basically climbing stairs. The only thing that kept us going was knowing that we would get to glissade the entire way down. As we slowly made our way up the mountain, gasping for air and clinging to the snow with our poles to prevent us from falling to our deaths, descending hikers flew by us down the glissade route (think a human toboggan or a waterslide made of snow) whooping and yelling "It was all worth it!" as they disappeared at breakneck speeds. We silently trudged on in hopes that we too would soon be able to yell that.
We took a few more brief breaks to eat lunch, take in the incredible views, and refuel. At the false summit we took off our crampons; the last 800 feet were to be done on foot. This was definitely the hardest part. We were exhausted, the path was steep and every step created a small rock slide. We switch-backed the whole thing, finally making it to the ruins of a small smokehouse that was built in 1910 and then a few feet further and we reached the summit of 12,287 feet! (I am proud to say that I was the first to reach the top!!)
Throughout our trip, we have been extremely lucky with weather. Almost everyday has been completely blue sky, and Mt. Adams was the same. It was sunny and clear which allowed us to see the most incredible views of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and countless other peaks and valleys. Truly spectacular.
And then the descent. The first part was horrible, but then we got to glissade! We all got in our snow gear, got our breaks ready (snow poles and ice axes) and hopped in the snow slide. It was the most thrilling experience. Not only was it incredibly fun, but it was fast. What took us 4 hours to climb up only took about 40 minutes down! Amazing.
We skated our way down the remaining snow fields and then basically fell down the rest of the mountain. After 13 hours of hiking, our bodies weak and broken, we reached the bottom. We indulged in 3 boxes of chilimac and slept in Sir Tentalot one final time. The perfect end to a perfect trip.
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