Back on the Summit

It has been a while since our son Jake has stood on top of a volcanic peak in the Cascade Mountains, but this is, in fact, his third time on the summit of Mt. Adams in Central Washington. It was eleven years ago this month Jake and his sister Jill summited Mt Rainier, after taking extensive training with The Mountaineers. It had been a dream goal of Jill's for a long time and having the two of them achieve it together was very special. They climbed several more peaks together, including a very cloudy and windy summit of Mt Adams, before Jill relocated to Colorado. Summit of Mt Rainier, August 1999. Jake went on to climb more mountains, but lately he has taken less involved hikes in his beloved mountains. Then this summer friends of his asked him to lead them on a climb up Mt Adams. So he started training when he could on weekends to be in shape. Last Friday, August 13th, he loaded up Gus The Bus. Gus has been handed down through family members for quite a while now and still likes to go on adventures with his current owner. Then he collected Greg and Laurie. Laurie was a classmate of Jake's in middle school through high school as well as being the daughter of a friend and brief teacher colleague of mine. Greg was a college and post college roommate of Jake's. Needless to say Jake was the catalyst in bringing this couple together. Laurie was not known as the athletic type until she attended Boot Camp for Brides prior to her wedding four years ago. Now there's no stopping her. She has climbed Mt Rainier, has run a marathon and is training for another, and she and Greg just returned from hiking to Machu Picchu in the Andes. For Greg this was a first time experience at mountain climbing. On Friday they set up camp at Taklakh Lake, at the foot of Mt Adams. They prepared for the climb with views of the mountain and some relaxing beverages. Saturday morning they drove Gus to the trail head, and loaded up with their packs for spending a night on the mountain, they set off up the trail.

Resting along the way.

The trail head is at 5600 feet elevation. It took them four hours to hike to Lunchcounter, at about 9000 feet, the overnight base camp.

It was still warm at this elevation.

They enjoyed the sunset on the mountain, and then prepared for a sunrise start to the summit.

They took a break at Piker's Point, the false summit, at 11,300 feet.

Ta-dah! Laurie and Greg at the summit.

And then Jake stands atop Mt Adams for his third time.

His altimeter watch shows 12,260 feet just below the summit, and the time is 9:49 AM.

The weather was so mild and the view so spectacular that they stayed on the mountain top for about half an hour.

-

Then they descended. This way.

For 2000 feet they glissaded down the mountain through this glissade trough. To glissade is to slide on your butt, ice ax at the ready to make any necessary course corrections. Laurie said it was the best part!

-

It took them the rest of the day to get back to the trail head and drive Gus out of the mountains and back to Seattle. Success all around!

-

I want to thank Laurie for the photos which she took and so kindly allowed me to use. I don't usually have a trip of Jake's so well documented. And thanks to facebook, I even got some updates along the way.