Saturday, September 29, 2012

Reaching the Summit: Mt. Adams

Ever since I moved to the Columbia River Gorge in 2010, I was in awe at the snow covered mountains - Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams. It dawned on me that I have never climbed a mountain before but now might be the perfect time to try! Known to be one of the "easier" mountains to summit, Mt. Adams tempted me every time I saw this majestic white peak. Standing 12,276 feet tall, it reminded me often of my goal to reach the top. Much to my displeasure, I never did climb it during the 2 years I lived in the Columbia River Gorge. Now, back for a two week visit in September, it was time to make this goal a reality...

Energy for the hike. . .

We hiked 2 hours up in the dark and slept out on the mountain! Lots of fresh air to take in.

Breakfast before we leave camp

A view of the FALSE summit! Getting to the top of this was the hardest part and you weren't even at the top yet.

SUMMIT!!! 12,276' made it :)

Our crew at the top with Mt. Rainer in the background

Start of the descent... long way to  go

Cool snow field we had to traverse.  It looks like a crazy scene from a movie

My first glissading! Yes, you slide down on your butt! I wore a rain poncho to protect my butt.

Another one of the glissading shoots. It was super cold and REALLY hurt if you got too much speed and flew out of the track. I had a bruise to prove it.

Drinking some FRESH mountain spring water! Straight from the source, hard to beat that.

Last snow field before we reach our camp area. You can see one of the camps in the right side of this photo.

A closer look at one of the camps. They build up the rocks to help protect you from the wind.
Well... it took us 6.5 hours to ascend, and 4.5 to descend. Needless to say, it was a long day of hiking! But, my to my pleasure, I finally got to check that off my list!