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Key Stats:

• Car to Cold Springs Trailhead: ~3 miles, 2hrs
• Trailhead to Lunch Counter: 5 hrs
• Lunch Counter to False Summit: 2hrs
• Lunch Counter back to Car: 3.5 hrs

Strong winds, a large base of snow and packs made this year's hike tremendously harder than last year's. The group size fluctuated wildly in the weeks leading up to the trip, but settled on 8 people - 7 of us on foot with snowshoes and Matt on skis. We planned on camping at Lunch Counter and summiting in the morning.

The 2007/08 winter was incredibly snowy, dropping 150 to 200% additional snow on the high mountains. The road leading up to the trailhead was impassable just before Morrison Creek Campground, 3 miles from the Cold Springs trailhead. There was 3-5 feet of snow at the official trailhead and it will be at least a month or more before the road is completely cleared.

We arrived at Mt Adams around noon on Saturday. 200% above average snowfall left a 3 mile hike up the road just to get to the trailhead.

The excess snow brought snow mobiles to the trails below the mountain. One reckless driver nearly hit Matt in the head with his tracks as he launched himself up one of the many snow berms that lined the road.

At the trailhead the pit toilets were accessible, and the trail marker was just barely visible. While we crossed dry road on our way up to the trailhead, from there on path was snow-covered. Matt flew up the mountain on telemark skis with skins and by the time we reached the trailhead he was nowhere to be seen.

The trail was easy to follow up until the intersection with the Round the Mountain Trail (marked with a stick buried deep in the snow). Although the typical route travels to the west of Crescent Glacier, the rangers recommended we travel to its east due to snow cornices along the ridge. Mt Adams and Crescent glacier were easily visible so this was an easy detour to take.

Showshoes were a last minute addition to our gear list and they were invaluable on the route up. I wasn't worried about post-holing, but the extra traction they provided kept us from sliding and allowed us to head directly up the slopes. We easily passed a group that was hiking in boots and crampons.

As we neared the tree line (7,000 ft), the wind picked up substantially. At first it blew up the mountain, but it eventually shifted to blow across and down the mountain. This made for pretty brutal climbing, and pretty significantly impacted group morale. We crested the eastern edge of lunch counter around 8 PM, a full 7 hours after we left the cars.

The wind at Lunch Counter was particularly fierce, and the group immediately began setting up tents. I dropped my bag and went in search of Matt. I expected him to be further west, but I couldn't find him and ultimately determined that I'd return to camp and try to get a message to him using a cell phone. Matt did have a tent and sleeping bag, as well as substantial mountaineering experience so I was pretty confident that he'd be all right.

By the time that I returned, Sumit, Ayla and Vern set their tent up on the leeward side of a ridge facing a snowfield and once they were inside didn't emerge until the morning. Zac and Ben had built a pretty substantial rockwall on the windward side of the same ridge. There had found a nice sandy spot so Rahul and I decided to camp next to them and we proceeded to build the wall wider and higher while Ben started the stoves.

The rock wall was really a wondrous thing. We had no problems getting a stove started and if you were down low enough it fully shielded you from the wind. However, sand blown up the mountain would blow over the wall and seemed to get in absolutely everything.

One of the stoves didn't start, so cooking and snow melting went much slower. All told it took us 2-3 hrs to refill water bottles and cook pasta.

From our spot on the ridge we had a beautiful view of the sunset behind Mt St. Helens. The wind remained fierce and by the time it was dark it had blown away the clouds that had darkened our ascent. While the rock wall did a great job shielding us from the wind, it wasn't quite tall enough to fully shield the tents. That meant a very loud and noisy night during which few slept.

By morning, the wind had subsided somewhat and the sun was burning off some high altitude clouds. We weren't in a huge hurry to get back on the slopes, so we waited until well past 9 to begin climbing again. Rahul's boots failed pretty horribly on the way up, and were still soaked through and cold. His toes were bordering on numbness and we all agreed it was good for him to remain in the warmth of camp.

The sun softened the snow substantially and we made good progress up to the False Summit. As we neared the peak, we ended up in the middle of an exposed icy area. Without crampons, our progress ground to a halt. At the rear of the line, Zac was able to shuffle to a softer area on the left and ultimately the group followed him to the top.

Given the late hour in the day and the icy conditions we had just experienced I wasn't comfortable going to the actual summit. We donned contractor trash bags (a must bring for future climbs), and slide back down the mountain. Awesome.

By the time we got back to camp, the sun was full and warm and the snow soft. We slowly repacked and were heading down the mountain at 4:20. We still hadn't seen Matt, but I had spoken with someone on the way up to the False Summit that had seen him around 6:30. I was pretty sure that he had skied down long before and I was eager to get down to the cars so that he didn't have to wait too long.

There was plenty of glissading on the way down, but we still didn't reach the cars until close to 8. At that point, we were all thrilled to drop packs and get back to Seattle.

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