This was a spectacular trip. Gorgeous weather, good friends, and to use a UW climbing club phrase, good times. We climbed the South Spur. I had to tow a tree out of the way as we drove to the TH at gray daylight. We got on the trail at 7 am, and hit the summit just before 4 pm. TH is at 4500 ft. Summit is at 12300. Nearly 8000 vertical. The most vertical footage I've ever done in a day. But we did get to cheat and ski down. Took about 3 hrs down.
Here's a google earth image of the route we did (GPS trace from Veronika's GPS).
See all pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/remierice/20090606MtAdams#
Saw some of Veronika's fellow Russians near the summit and they posed with their flag. The dudes joked with me that they were meeting there for a secret KGB meeting. I joked back asking where their Kalashnikovs were. They responded quite seriously, "Kalashnikovs are quite heavy. Nearly 10 kilos. We would never carry those up here."
Here's our summit shot.
and a picture of my skis on top :)
Veronica took some nice pics of me on the way down the SW chute. The route was spectacular. At the top, it was a bit icy, but below about 11,000 ft, the snow was softened by the sun. The best part of the chute had snow of very uniform consistency that let you sink in about a foot with each jump turn. See the video too in the pictures on Picasa.
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5 comments:
amazing superimposition of track upon google earth of mt adams
need something more burly than a rope on hand;heavy nylon strap probably better than chain i always have.
the video of jump turns is impressive after an 8 k slog to the top.
with all the rock outcroping one wants to avoid falling onto one under just a skiff of snow.
8k ski down took 3 hrs?
we do 2k at utah resorts in a few minutes.
were u just savoring the time on the mountain?
great pics
a salty bunch to skin up 8k in a day.
steve
Last video of you skiing down, doing little jumps, was pretty cool.
8K in one day is amazing.
Beautiful pics of the mountain.
was it a tough climb? Looks like it was a lot of fun. Less stress than Rainier. Fun that you got to ski down!
Although this was the most vertical footage I've done in a day, I guess it wasn't the toughest climb. Physically, I held up and psychologically it was easy. Maybe it's the psychological stress that can really make a climb tough.
Those pictures above the clouds are really cool. I also like the google earth picture showing the route. 8K in one day, whew. That is quite a hike. Nice to be able to ski much of the way down, it looks like it was pretty nice snow in the videos.
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