Chapter 11: Prepping for Mount Adams

July 7, 2011

My hiking buddy, Roger, thinks it would be a good idea to climb to the top of Mount Adams as a way of getting conditioned for the thin air of Cuzco, Peru. Cuzco is slightly above 11,000 feet; Mount Adams is about 12,300 feet. Of course, you have to walk up Mt. Adams, while you only have to fly into Cuzco, so I’m not sure about his reasoning. Couldn’t we just helicopter onto Mount Adams and walk around a bit?

The warmup involved a climb up Mount Rainier Tuesday, July 5. Not all the way—just as an orientation for what it will be like to hike on snow. That’s Roger in the foreground, below, coming up a rather steep snow bank, and Mount Adams, over there in the background.

 

We were on snow from the time we left the parking lot at Paradise. We climbed for seven hours, then descended in two. The climb involved our feet and ice axes for support. The descent frequently involved our butts, as we slid down some chutes carved by the butts of previous climbers who glissaded down the steepest parts of the mountain. One 45-degree slope took 45 minutes to an hour to ascend and one minute to descend. Here’s a young Estonian woman we met who used the quick way down:

 

Check out the smile. She was lovin’ it.

 

Hiking like this is pretty much a drudge, but there some high points:

• Viewing four volcanoes at once: Adams, Hood, St. Helens, and Rainier.
• Knowing that I was sustaining a 120 bpm pulse for 30-45 minutes at a time as I climbed through snow.
• Listening to the rock falls from this part of the mountain where there had been a major landslide a week earlier:

 

•  Seeing a marmot that had come out of hibernation:

 

• Looking behind me and watching Mr. Smartie Pants—the guy who suggested climbing these mountains—pant to keep up and then afterwards perform the sorriest plank I have ever seen. (For more exemplary planks, allow me to suggest this link: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-60-best-planks.)

 

• Finding a solar out-house at the 7,000 foot level. It was an odorless composting toilet. Why couldn’t they have one of those at Mount Si?

 

Altogether, we only ascended about 1,600 feet, getting to the 7200 foot level on the route to Camp Muir. Nothing to write home about. But the view was splendid.

In looking over my past postings, I think they were a little too wordy, so I hope you like the photos better. Thanks for reading.

Love,

 Robert (Oh, that's Smartie Pants on my right.)