ALPINE ADVENTURES

At over 12,000 feet, Mt. Adams seems to look down at the many neighboring volcanoes. It is covered in glaciers and rises well above the tree line. This past weekend, Enuwbe along with the Foursquare mountaineering group took an adventure to the top.We began on a Thursday, and drove to
a campsite located many miles down a dirt road to the base of the mountain. Here we enjoyed a gathering with friends family members, and lots of speghetti. Carbo-loading is a common activity for many high energy sports. However, I think the biggest benefit is the camaraderie between friends before the big event. At this feast I met for the first time the people I would be climbing with. Every one of them are accomplished climbers of over a decade of experience. All in all, it seemed that between them they had climbed every mountain across the globe. With the major climb beginning in the morning we crawled into our base camp tents early for what turned out to be a rather chilly night.
First thing the next morning we checked our gear, packed up last minute stuff, and headed towards the trail head. There are a few different routes to get to the summit, on this particular climb we took the South Trail No. 183. It began well below tree level, which offered plenty of shade. With my cramp-ons and ice axe tied to the back of my pack, I had plenty of confidence that this was going to be an enjoyable and relaxing hike. Along with my 45 pound pack, I brought my 8 year old daughter, who has lately proven to be an excellent hiking companion. About 2 hours after we began we lost one of our team members to elevation sickness. The team leader brought him back to base camp and my daughter, my other team member, Chelsey, and I continued our climb. We luckily caught up with another team and enjoyed our bright sunny day with a mixture of laughs and trail stories.
We eventually reached our first snow sighting and the trees began to get smaller. Trees get smaller the higher you get, do to the extreme conditions. They are not younger; they just can't grow as big. Eventually, however, we hiked past the tree line until we were at an elevation that is too extreme for trees to grow at all. This is about where we met our first glacier, often called Hells Acre. We, however decided to avoid the torturous long ascent up Hells Acre and chose the Widow Maker instead. At fist glance, this seemed to be a good idea. Steeper yes, but much quicker. As we began the ascent up Widow Maker, two climbers on the top of the cliff yelled down, "It is very steep, you may want to take a different route." Not us. We decided, "we fear no steep cliff named Widow Maker. Ha ha ha". So we kept going. It took me quite a while to get to the top of this cliff. I am not sure how I survived. A week after the climb, I still have a rather large bruise on my forearm, where a rather large boulder was broken lose from above and came crashing down on top of me. The picture to the right shows the widow maker from the top. I only wish pictures could really grasp the whole thing. The rocky areas are much longer than they appear in the photos, and the whole cliff is quite a bit higher than it looks. You would think that this long trek would be the end of the day, but it was only the beginning. We still had another three hours of glacial hiking to go. The hike, however, was amazing. The views like you could never imagine. Looking down upon the earth and it's many layers and layers of hills is a landscape so beautiful and glorious, it's impossible to explain with words. You can see in my photos in the background the beautiful cascades, however, my camera could not pick up the details of each mountain that you see, the small town in the distance, or the small farms carved out in a vast forest as far as the eye can see. It is an odd feeling to look down at the rest of the world. To the west, I looked down at Mount. St. Helens, a famous volcano with its good side bravely looking up at us. Mount St. Helens erupted in the 1980's and covered most of Washington with a tremendous amount of volcanic ash. To the south, I looked down upon Mt. Hood. A beautiful, rather distinct volcano with its sharp tall peek.

We continued our slow, yet steady ascent until we arrived at our overnight destination; a popular camping spot for many Mt. Adams hikers called Lunchcounter. It sounds good, but one thing I can assure you is, there is no lunch counter up there. It is a great spot for

pitching a wind resistant tent, gathering water, and heading to bed. As you can see in the picture, it is a very barren place. The views and surroundings, however are spectacular! At this point we are at a height, that is virtually impossible to sustain life. The air is very thin, and the weather is unforgiving. As we arrived, we were lucky to

encounter very low winds and lots of sun shine. The picture to the left, shows our make shift kitchen. The best meal you will ever eat is the one you share with friends that you just spent climbing six hours with. It was a simple meal on a small compact hiking stove with large wind guards. Dinner consisted of minute rice, mixed with some chicken, and cream of chicken

soup. I shared my bowl with my amazingly strong, and brave daughter, and enjoyed every glorious bite.

On either side of lunch counter are very large glaciers. If you can find a

melting creek, they give off the best and coldest water you will ever find. On this hike we found a creek on the side of the mountain about a half mile from our camp. So, after dinner a few of us headed to refill our desperately needed water supply. Even fresh glacier water at over 9,000 feet, must be filtered. So we filtered each bottle with a compact hiking filter (on the left you can see me in my Enuwbe base layer, filtering my water). There are also iodine pills chlorine drops that can be used, however, they ruin the flavor. When you have the chance to drink hand gathered glacier water, you do not want to ruin the flavor.

Once we ate and the water was gathered, the next

best thing to do is sleep. So that is what we did.

At an early 5 am wake up, we packed our smaller packs, left non-essentials at lunch counter and began our final ascent. At this final climb, altitude, weather and ice are the biggest factors. That is why warm clothes, ice axe, and cramp-ons become your best friends. The climb is steep and unforgiving. The most common approach is, take 30 steps, take a break. Take 30 more steps, take another break. It goes like this for three to four hours. In this picture I am standing near my tent with the false summit behind me. This final ascent includes over 2,000 feet of elevation, then an 800 foot drop, before another 1,000 foot elevation to the true summit. A long yet rewarding climb. After completing the climb everyone gets to enjoy a fast, exhilarating glacading (sliding down the glacier on one's backside using an ice axe to control the speed) ride back to lunch counter. Slow up, Very fast down. We quickly packed up and started our hike back to base camp. During our descent, we enjoyed one more glacading ride. This one was the best one yet. Glacading down this hill, meant I did not have to climb back down to Widow Maker. This made me very happy. After being scared half to death the majority of the trip, and vowing to myself I would NEVER do another hike that involved cramp-ons, I have to admit, I can't wait to get back up there again. It's as if the mountain is calling my name. I hope I get one more hike up there this season.

I would like to give many many thanks to the Yakima Foursquare church for allowing me to take advantage of this opportunity. It has been, by far, one of the best experiences of my life. I met fellow climbers that I am so honored to have hiked with. I can't stop thinking about the trip, the people, and how privileged I am to have taken part in it. Thank you.

To learn more about this amazing mountaineering group check our their blog, Foursquare Mountaineering.