Can a mountain be so different from one year to another? I guess it can. This is the second time I do Mt Adams and it was completely different than last year. On one side, we did not get any views from the top and on the other, we had a lot more snow so glissading down was a lot of fun, even more than last year. This time, I took a group but we were joined by another group so we had a lot of people for this trip. I also knew that my good friend Sean was going to be there with his group. The other change we made this year was that, instead of heading there Friday night, we went early on Saturday. So, after picking up permits and having a quick breakfast on the way, we got to the trailhead mid morning. By the time we were all ready to go it was almost noon so we decided to hike at our own pace so we could stake some camping spots up in lunch counter. Soon after we started, we were surprised to find snow at lower elevations. That changed the hike a bit as there were several sections that required a much steeper climb. Once on the ridge, we followed it up towards the glacier. From there on, it was only snow until we got to Lunch counter. Pete had already gotten there and staked several spots so as the rest of the group got there; we started filling our space in the mountain. That evening, after dinner we went a bit off to enjoy the sunset and the magnificent view of Mt St Helens. On Sunday, we woke up early and started getting ready for the climb. After having breakfast and packing everything, we got to the base of the glacier, got our crampons on and started climbing. For about half the morning, the weather was looking great with nice blue skies but as we were approaching the false summit the blue sky started to change. A heavy haze started lifting blocking almost all views around the mountain to the point that not even the valleys bellow were visible. That actually made it good for some interesting pictures where all the climbers look like ants following in a straight line in the distance. Early in the afternoon, we made it to the summit. Up there we spent about an hour taking pictures, resting and enjoying the limited scenery. Then came the fun part of getting down. With so much snow, we actually started glissading from the very summit until we got level with Piker’s Peak. We hiked that portion and then it was a single slide from there all the way down to our campsite. What had took us about 3 hours to climb up, took us about 15 minutes to get back down. Last year, when I did this trip, that’s where the fun ended, but this year, we grabbed our gear, and continued glissading most of the way down. It was certainly a great weekend with good company.
