June 30-July 1, 2001, Mt. Adams

This was a Mountaineers outing which I led. Four of us drove via Randle (FS 23) to Trout Lake. At the Ranger Station we completed six forms, four Volcano Passes ($15 apiece, required above 7000'), a Wilderness Permit, and a Climbing Registration. We car camped Saturday night at Morrison Creek (this curiously was free). We started from Timberline at 6:30 am Sunday (the last 3 miles of the road are bad, as usual. Apparently none of the Volcano Pass receipts have been applied to the access road). We booted all of it except for the stretch from the top of the Crescent (pocket) Glacier to the Lunch Counter. This part we skinned. Above the Lunch Counter was a cold wind. Conditions above the False Summit did not encourage a descent of the SW Chutes. The start of the Chutes was hard white ice. The skiing from the summit to the false summit was icy and rough. The slope below the false summit was heavy, unconsolidated, wet, new snow at the start but became decent corn halfway to the Lunch Counter. We were back at the parking lot by 4:30 pm and home by 11 pm.

By the way it is not possible to obtain any of these permits at the trail head it must be done at the Trout Lake Ranger Station. Also, there was no one enforcing these permit requirements (although we were told that there had been policing on Saturday).

I forgot to mention one other permit which is required to ski Adams. That is a Northwest Forest Service Pass ($30 annual) which is required to park at the end of the road. So, our party of four paid $90 in permits for our ten hours on the mountain. I've been skiing/climbing this mountain for years and I could discern no 'improvements' whatsoever. So it's hard for me to be empathetic to whatever supposed good is being served.

Brent H