The moon over Mt. Adams
This is the same route ascended last year on a North Ridge-South Spur traverse of Mt Adams. All of the important information can be found on the Adams Traverse trip report. The ridge is melted out for the most part with only short patches of snow and ice remaining, leaving a large portion of the climb on loose rock and scree. The ridge is narrow and exposed in a few places along the way and the route finding is reasonably straight forward yet two of the three parties I met along the way claimed to have gotten "way off route". I really don't see how they got way off route given it is on a ridge, but they probably got off route at about 9400' (this is a wild guess) where the route reaches a steep snow traverse. The best way to negotiate this is to climb a short rock wall on climbers right, then down climb (a bit exposed) 6-8 feet to easier ground. The route between the top of the North Ridge and the Summit is technically glacier but a narrow corridor of unbroken glacier can be followed.
I did most of this climb at night for no real reason other than it was a nice night to climb and I didn't want to take two full days to climb this route. Here are a few photos from the trip:
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The moon over Mt. Adams |
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The Adams Glacier from the top of the North Ridge |
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Mt. Rainier from the summit |
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The North Ridge of Mt. Adams |
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Mt. Adams from the approach route |
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References:
Selected Climbs in the Cascades Volume 2; Nelson and Potterfield; Pages 22-25
Cascade Alpine Guide Volume 1; Fred Beckey; Pages 53-57, 60-62
