TL;DR - Finally made it up Adams, insanely beautiful and incredibly challenging with crosswinds potentially gusting to 60-70mph! Only real notable thing to watch for is the climb/scramble at 7500ft up to the ridge. Not really exposed but lots of loose rock so watch out with climbers above/below you.
Mt. Adams had been on my list for a couple of years but kept getting pushed back for a multitude of reasons - until this week! In the few days leading up to the trip, it was looking like we were going to have to push the trip back again due to the only stretch iffy weather in the last few weeks occurring during the 2 days we had planned over a month ago. Lucky for us though, the weather trended clearer the day or two before so we pulled the trigger.
We left Seattle early Tuesday morning and started on the trail right around noon Tuesday, opting to keep a relaxed pace to enjoy the trip. Got up to the Lunch Counter by 5pm. The hike up was rather uneventful with the only somewhat tricky spot being that scramble onto the ridge at 7500ft. At this point the snow is pretty patchy so its a bit of loose rock scramble up the ridge so just be careful of climbers below you with the loose rock. My friend wasn't super stoked on that scramble but I didn't have any issues with it.
The winds were pretty gusty by the time we got to the Lunch Counter, likely around 40mph so setting up tents was a two person job. Running water at the lunch counter was minimal with the cooler temperatures so melting snow will be a better bet up there. Like any alpine backpacking trip, the sunset was absolutely stunning with the colors somewhat amplified by a bit of low level smoke/haze. We got into our tents around 9:30 with the goal of a 3am wakeup, but most of the night was rather sleepless with the winds getting stronger, enough to blow a significant amount of dust into my tent from under the rain fly. At 3am we assessed the conditions and decided to wait until daylight to attempt the climb due to the winds.
With the winds still ripping, we started our climb at 6am with daylight + wind feeling more manageable than darkness + wind. With the steep climb up to Pikers and the crosswinds gusting over 50mph at that point my friend decided she was too tired and sore to battle the winds and turned back down at 9,800ft.
I decided to keep going on what would be a very slow going and challenging journey. The crosswinds kept getting stronger as I climbed up to Pikers and actually knocked me over quite a few times. I ended up getting into the rhythm of trying to climb as quickly as I could during the brief lulls in the wind, then slowing down or getting low to brace when the wind would pick back up. It was quite the adventure but I made it up by Pikers around 9am, took a longer break before continuing onto the top. The final push to the top was just as exhausting as the climb up to Pikers as I continued to fight the wind, but after being so close I had to make it. I had been following 2 climbers on the way up, crossing paths when they were heading back down while I was a few hundred feet away from the summit. A dad and his kid! I didn't catch your names but if you see this, your kid is incredible for getting to the top with that wind!
I ended up summiting around 10:30am and words can't describe how excited I was. Finally after years of pushing back due to schedules, weather, slow injury recovery, and such a challenging climb, I was at the top! I ended up hiding from the wind in a hole in the snow where the lookout cabin is still buried before heading back down. Another climber behind me who had started at the trailhead made it up not too long after me so we chatted for a bit and took some pictures (Thanks Robbie!) before heading down around 11:15am. The glissade chutes were too icy still down towards Pikers so we hiked most of the way there. I ended up heading up to the top of pikers to check out that crevasse which was super cool but I definitely kept my distance from that edge.
Got back to the glissade chutes below pikers at 12:30 which were perfectly soft and so much fun. At this point I was exhausted so I took a quick break, broke camp and left around 2. Snow was too soft to glissade down the snowfield but the boot sliding was still fun. Slower going past the snow field, getting back to the car at 5pm.
Overall it was an incredibly fun and challenging trip that i'll be dreaming about for a while. I'll definitely be back for more fun and to take more pictures when the wind isn't making half my photos blurry. I ended up looking at the Camp Muir wind observations from the station up there afterwards, and through the climb winds were sustained around 50-55mph, gusting to 70-75mph at Muir. Based on how much I was getting knocked over, I feel like the winds were probably pretty similar at Adams maybe 60-70mph so doing it on a windy day is no joke.
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