Mt. Adams

12,281’

13.61 miles

6,203’ elevation gain

13 hours 

I made a Facebook again to join mountaineering and climbing groups, and find people to do some harder mountains and/or climb together. A gal posted asking if anyone wanted to summit Mt. Adams with her and I replied not really thinking I would actually do it. After chatting with her about conditions and doing a bit more research on the mountain it sounded like it would be a really good segue way to Mt. Shasta - which I hope to do next month before Mt. Whitney. 

The drive would be about 7 hours. I decided to do it - why not?! I took highway 97 through Bend on the way there because I love to avoid the freeway at all costs. 

After stopping for lunch, I got really bad anxiety. I think I even cried for a minute. I don’t know why, maybe it was the smoke and having a fear that this unknown woman would no-show me. And I wasn’t about to drive all the way there to not climb this mountain so I was going to do it alone if I had to. I also hate leaving Diesel - at 15.5 years old I have a fear of him passing away while I’m gone and that would just break my heart. I keep telling myself after Mt. Whitney my weekends will calm down and I don’t have to leave him anymore. He stays with my mom so I know he’s safe and well taken care of but if something happened while I was gone I could just never forgive myself. 

I felt better once I arrived at the trail head and saw Mt. Adams in its beauty. It looked HUGE. I thought, "how the hell and I gonna climb that thing?!" As soon as I arrived I ate some ramen, and started to get ready for bed. We agreed on a 1:45am wake-up call so I wanted to get to bed early. When I was putting up all my window shades a squirrel climbed into my car and stole some chips and would not get out - it was pretty hilarious. 

Elaine arrived and parked a few cars down - the trailhead was suprisingly full. We had a nice short conversation and agreed to see each other at 2am. 

I slept surprisingly well those 6 hours. My alarm went off at 1:45am and for a moment I forgot I was in my car and what I was about to accomplish. 

The first 3 miles were in the dark and took us about 3 hours. Once we reached the first snow field, we put our microspikes on and climbed hiked in for about a half hour until we reached Lunch Counter. There we took a break and watched the sunrise. At that point I was a little nauseous. I honestly had doubts I was going to make it to the summit. I knew it wasn’t from elevation because we were only a little above 9,000’. I ate a caffeine gel and that gave me a great boost of energy for the hardest part of the climb. 

The trek up to the false summit was mostly on snow. The snow was old and ditched out which actually made it easier to gain elevation. I did a lot better than I thought I would. I felt strong and I kept telling myself “this is what you’ve been training for. All those mornings of running on 6+ incline at Orange Theory”. About half way up Elaine was feeling some nausea from the elevation so I gave her some caffeine chews and we took a little break for her to regain herself. She said the caffeine helped a ton and we carried on. 

About 1/4 way from the top of the false summit the snow stopped and we had to hike on scree. It was literally two steps forward and one step back with the sliding. I was very thankful it was short. 

From the top of the false summit we traversed back to the final climb. We crossed an ice field that led us to steep switchbacks that were a mix of sand and rock. Luckily it was not like the previous scree and there was no slide back. At this point I felt stronger than ever. We were so close! I focused on keeping me breathing nice and slow - breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth.

Over the last bit the old shelter came into sight and I knew we were at the top! We sat down and immediately had a snack to refuel our bodies from all the hard work we just did. 

After food came the summit beers and lots of photos of our accomplishment. 

The way down seemed pretty fast. When we got back to the snow field we were able to glissade down and that saved us a couple hours on our descent. I was in thin Lululemon leggings and my ass BURNED from the cold bumpy snow but with how fast it was getting us down I toughed it out and carried on with my ice axe in hand. 

When the glissading was done I was back where I had been hiking in the dark so nothing looked familiar. The three miles on dirt back down seemed like it took forever. Once we finally reached the trailhead I immediately changed into fresh clothes and chugged some ice cold water. And just my luck my little squirrel friend came back and wouldn’t get out of my car again. I thought I got him out because I couldn’t see him anywhere and Elaine and I said our goodbyes. I was going to drive the 6 hours on the freeway back to Medford so I could have a full day in bed to do nothing. As I started to drive away the squirrel popped his head up from my pile of things and I slammed my car in park and spent another good ten minutes trying to coax him out of the car. Once he was finally out, I began my way back home.