Mt. Adams Conditions – June 23 & 24, 2012
The road to the Cold Springs trail head is blocked at the Morrison Creek trail head about 3 mi/1,000ft below. I would guess that the drifts will be clear by mid-July to get another 1 ½ miles closer but from there it will be at least a month and there are a few trees across the road that will need to be cleared to drive all the way to the proper trail head.
The snow is full-on consolidated. No need for snow shoes or skis to get up and no post holing. There is a pretty good Highway/Boot Trail up Suksdorf Ridge to the Lunch Counter campsites but from Lunch Counter up the snow field to the false summit is pretty much a free-for-all. There is no established Glissade Toboggan Run yet. Fair warning, the Highway to Lunch Counter will disappear quickly with a few inches of summer snow storm. Most of the parties we saw this weekend were still wanding their route up to Lunch Counter.
We bailed on the summit because of dense fog and intermittent snow. Probably 200ft vis at 5:00am. Even with wands and GPS, it was too sketchy for us to continue beyond 9,500’ where we were running out of rocks for some horizon and perspective. There were 3 other parties camped around us at ~ 9,100 ft. One solo climber ventured out after us and reported getting to 10,000ft before making the same decision we did. The other parties camped near us didn’t bother trying. On the way down, we popped out below the ceiling at about 6.500ft and never did see the summit all the way out and on the drive home.
Hope this helps. Let’s be safe out there.
Phil
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