Took off on Saturday morning to go climb Mt Adams. Arrived at the ranger station in Trout Lake early afternoon. Met up with the other 3 people in my party. We headed out up to the TH and started hiking around 2. Hike from the TH to Lunch Counter (summer route) is easy to follow until you hit the bottom of Crescent Glacier at which point you've got to follow the wood posts or traverse uphill to the left onto the ridge. Snow was soft by mid-afternoon which made for a sloppy hike the rest of the way to Lunch Counter. Pulled up a sheltered spot at Lunch Counter just in time as the wind picked up to blowing a sustained 30mph with gusts over 40mph.
Needless to say it made sleep difficult. We had planned for a 2am alpine start but the wind didn't die down until about 7am. By that point the other 3 members of my team had decided they were going to scratch the climb completely. However being gracious they said they'd be willing to wait if I wanted to give it a go. I set off from camp and got to the base of Pikers Peak at 9am. I had given myself a 2 hour time limit to get up the face to Pikers Peak. I started off climbing as quickly as I could without gassing myself. I got to the top of Pikers Peak in 1:20. The traverse and hike up to the true summit took another hour. Snow was starting to soften up by that point and the hike/glissade back to Lunch Counter only took about an hour and a half. So the round trip camp at Lunch Counter to summit and back was just under 4.5 hours. Weather was perfect, excellent glissading to be had by mid afternoon. Just be mindful of temps and wind. Cheers!
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