July 13, 2008: Mt Adams wildfire, Cold Springs TH closed

It's kind of low and flat where the fire is ... but the extra sun exposure might help that road melt out earlier, which would be nice. Burns can be nicer to ski through too, no tree wells or bombs to muck up the surface.

I posted a sequence of photos on TTips showing the fire going from just a plume Sunday am into a Chernobyl-like-thing by the afternoon. You can see them here:
www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=46778

Robbie - Where you on the mtn Monday or Sunday? They never told us the fire had jumped the road or we might have to bivy up high. The USFS we met was at the TH and then they were about to let cars down 5 at a time.

The good news is that there will be some great morel and ski combo trips next spring...

No kidding! Bring on the trail supreme pizza - made with the freshest mushrooms!

Jeff ,We were on the mountain on sunday. I came down around 1230 or so, at that point they were letting people go to the campground. I didn't think that was such a good idea from the looks of things. Quickly events happened that confirmed my opinon. I stayed with the ranger and after discusion between him and Hedquarters the decison was made to hold people up high. the next thing on the radio was the fire was closing in on the road and then no more than 5 minutes later the fire jumped the road. We were not told that we were going to spend the night but just that it could happen and to be thinking about it. From the looks of things I thought for sure the campground would be lost . So much so that I was mentally shopping for a more fuel efficient car than my explorer. Other thoughts were to the amount of food in my pack! Quite a few of us were calling home warning loved ones of a late return.
After watching tanker after tanker and helis carrying water the road was secured around 330 0r so. then we were given the ok to go hike down to the campground sticking together. I skied a bit of it and returned to join up with group from Yakima. if you came down later than say 330 or so or skie dthe chutes and came back the round the mountain trail you would have missed the upper mountain delay.
The reason I came down early was my hip was bothering me and I had to give up at the Lunch counter around 9am . I did get to take my long long dreamed of mountain nap of 2 hrs . Five others in my group made the false summit and came down not too long after 430.
Again I think the rangers and firefighters did a hell of good job managing what could have been way worse.
by the way I saw your photos, very good. Was that you on dynafits and f3s.
if so we started out about the same time as you. leapfrogging abit on the way up.

Was that you on dynafits and f3s.

That was me. (Jeff was Dynafits & Megarides, on Dynafit Mustagh Atta skis, and my brother Ben was Dynafits & Flexon-tongued Lasers, on Shuksan skis.)
We started driving down the road at 3:45, which was just about when they stopped the convoy system and let everyone down as usual.
We had reached the campground at around 2:30.

Hmm ,i looked at your dynafits and they didn't have the nylon tie strap for the runaway connection ! anyway I would have noticed you in the backup. Did you come out lower down ? Still touring out here?