Mount Adams in June: A storm and a surpise

Mount Adams was the first volcano I summited and is an experience I will never forget.

The weather forecast for our planned dates the beginning of June were looking a bit dicey, but given that we were already in the area we decided to go for it. We spent the night before the climb sleeping in the back of the truck a few miles from the summer trailhead, due to the snowline still being fairly low, and were in good company with others doing the same.

We planned to climb to the Lunch Counter, the typical high camp on this route at around 9,200 feet, the first day and get up early to do our summit push and descent the following day.

Morning soon came, and we stuffed our faces with a quick protein bar and set out.

It was 8:30am when we started the road walk to the mountain, so we surprised to see that most folks were just getting back to their cars from morning skis on the lower mountain with reports that the wind up high was out of hand. We pushed on under blue skies.

By 6,500 ft, the weather took a turn and the wind that others had spoken of showed itself. The whiteout was so thick it was hard to discern if you were moving forward or backward or grasp any sense of orientation in space. We saw a couple of skiers break through the fog for a moment as they made their descents and then it was just us.

With lots of frequent stops for maps checks, we made it to the Lunch Counter at 2pm.

We set up our tent hastily and a bit neglectfully as we were too excited by the idea of crawling inside and eating some lunch without gusts of wind assaulting us from all angles.

While having lunch inside the tent, we discussed our options. The weather was clearly deteriorating. The storm that was supposed to hit tomorrow midday seemed to have been expedited.

20 minutes later, the wind had quieted a bit. We peered outside. The clouds had parted revealing a beautiful slice of blue sky. We look at each other knowingly and then both start scrambling to get our boots on.

We left our skis behind in exchange for boots, crampons, and our ice axes.

Conditions deteriorated and the whiteout returned within 30 minutes of leaving the Lunch Counter. But we were determined. 3,000 ft to reach the summit.

Film photo really captured the whiteout conditions.

We arrived at the summit at 6pm. After peering into the fog for a moment in hopes it would magically reveal a view, we almost we started to make the long descent to camp before dark.

We made it back to camp soon after 8pm, the wind threatening to knock down our tent and blow our skis away into the abyss making us wonder whose great idea it was to camp at over 9,000 ft in a storm.

We stripped down outside in the snow to protect our precious dry sleeping bags from our wet and frost-covered clothing (iykyk) and jumped inside, grateful for a moment of the wind not slapping us in the face. It was both too windy and we were too exhausted to imagine trying to light the camp stove, so dried mango, protein bars, and the last of our water supplies for dinner it was. And that’s when Luke pops the question (the big question!). It felt fitting as I can’t think of a more “us” way to get engaged than windburnt, in our sleeping bags, eating dehydrated foods. Here’s to a lifetime of climbing many more mountains!