Let's give the West Coast a try.: Second Star to the Right and Straight on til Morning

After weeks of inspired talk and constant procrastination we finally resolved the dispute of climbing Mt. Adams, 12,326 ft, and made our dream a reality. Tom, LT, and I left the MAC at 10:30pm on 7/31/09 to summit the second highest peak in WA. LT drove us to the trail head and despite a half hour detour that almost crashed us into a wild heard of cows, we made it to the starting line and made our quest for the summit at 12:00am on 8/1/09.

Tom and I getting ready to glascade/slide on our asses/trash bags down the mountain.

Some people, well let's say most people, may say we were crazy to summit a dangerous peak in the dark with no map, no trail pass, no parking pass, no crampons, and no climbing experience. Well, we were crazy, and most importantly oblivious to the challenge that laid above us. The biggest idea driving us to the summit was the thought of catching sunrise at the summit.

View from the False Summit.

After about an hour and a half on a steady, solid, and consistent ground we arrived in a more open and free area of land. The trail, at first, was easy to follow and gradual, but once we arrived at the rockier section and lost the trail, the true adventure began...

We were just climbing UP. UP. That's what we needed to do so no one panicked or got frustrated, we just kept following the person in front and trusted their judgement and went with it. Maybe it was because we had been up for about 21 hours at this point but when we got lost in a group of giant rocks or didn't know which route to head towards, we just said, "Oh well." Of course the route we took was much more difficult and longer but we definitely scored adventure points in the process. We climbed over big boulders and through tight fits in between the rocks because we didn't believe the nighttime ice glazed over the snow would be any easier.

Rockstar summit pose.

We could hear the water roaring down the side of Adams and it added another excitement factor to being lost on this giant rock. It was continuous crashing and at times of indecisiveness it could strike fear and intimidation through your body and mind. Every thought and route consideration was pondered through the sound of rushing ice-cold glacial water.

Mt. Rainer in the distance.

The funniest part was walking the next morning through the area that we got lost in just a few hours previously. At the time we had no idea of anything we were doing past 30 feet in front of us. Our head lamps only shone so far so we really had no clue where the trail was or if we would ever meet up with it again later in the darkness. We couldn't see our progress of how far we went or the distance that we still had to go, we were just climbing. We took one of the more confusing routes up the mountain and the part we climbed was a good mile out of the way, and in mountain distance that is quite the costly mistake in terms of energy and time. The rewarding aspect of the climb was that each of us were able to persevere throughout the climb with little frustration or panic. I have incredible amounts of respect for the way LT and Tom handled themselves in such brave and mature manners and it put my worries at ease the entire time with them.

East side glacier view from the summit.

The most frightening and real moment was about 200 yards from the false summit when I waiting for Tom to see how he was progressing up the steep slope. He had an out of body experience where he pushed his limits to a great extreme that brought him to a whole different level of understanding of his body.

Glacier that spans a few hundred yards from the False Summit.

So Tom and I took a little break to catch our breath and to get a little hydration therapy. Laid around and this juncture in the climb there isn't that much verbal communication. Every ounce of energy needs to be preserved, especially since we have been making great time besides our initial detour. Now that Tom was back to reality I tested him with a nature question of, "What is photosynthesis?" because Tom is an Ecology genius and since I actually knew the answer to this one I figured it was appropriate to ask a brilliant man such as Tom. He answered it with flying colors and that was the cue to move up to our pit stop of the False Summit.

We reached the False Summit at 5:00am and we could see the sun come up just enough to feel a sense of accomplishment. We were so drained at this point that it seemed like that was the summit, or we hoped it was at least. We had hot tea and oatmeal and then we each passed out on the rocks for a little bit before making our way towards the summit around 7:30.

We hit summit around 9:00am and soaked up our accomplishment with some rockstar pictures and smiles.

Glascading time! There are glascading trenches where you can slide down the mountain on your ass with anything or nothing under your buns to guide you down. So out came the plastic bags and down the snow-luge for time-saving and bobsled action. We got some great speed on our bags and it took us no time to get down the peak.

LT may have been a little tired at this point.

I did end up getting a sore bottom because I hit a rock mine field and some sharp ice that turned my butt-sliding experience into a boot skating one. I almost got upset by how much my bosom was bruised but it was too much fun to care.

Oh what a feeling to come down a mountain that everyone is climbing up. Haha! They looked so miserable and exhausted. I felt that just a few hours previous but definitely not at the moment of seeing them. I was in pure exuberance and got a pure adrenaline rush to know that the end of this was only a few hours away. The true beauty was finally getting perspective on the incredible feat that we just accomplished. Going up in the dark doesn't fully give you the true scope of the massive rock that you are climbing.

Enjoying some oatmeal and tea while soaking in the sun.

Walking/sliding down Adams and periodically looking back up the slope would show how little the dots of people appeared. After getting down and seeing a broader view of Adams gave each of us a better sense of the incredible feat we just endured.

Tom loving the oatmeal.

Blisters, ripped pants, broken thumbnail, bruised ass, broken down knees, and complete exhaustion filled my body during the last leg of the walk back to the trail head. This will go down as the most physically challenging experience of my life. Every corner was blind and it created illusions of red Toyotas and we thought the parking lot would never appear. We got back to the car at 2pm and took a celebratory shot of whiskey to celebrate the time we just had together.

King of the mountain!