I climbed Mt. Adams this weekend with Lawrence and Megan. Lawrence kindly drove us from Seattle since the forest road up to Cold Springs Trailhead on the South Route has developed some fairly deep ruts and is rougher than usual.
We left Seattle around 7:30 a.m. and arrived at the trailhead around 1 p.m. From there we started the hike toward Lunch Counter. We decided to camp roughly 1,000 vertical feet below Lunch Counter because I had loaned my 20-degree sleeping bag to Megan and brought my 45-degree bag instead.
As we hiked higher, it became clear this was a serious mistake.
The forecast called for temperatures around 20°F overnight, and it definitely was not going to be a balmy evening. Because of the cold, we decided to leave for the summit at 4 a.m. the next morning. That would minimize the amount of time spent lying awake in the cold and also get us back to Seattle at a reasonable hour.
We reached camp around 6 p.m. and were in our sleeping bags by about 7:45 p.m. That should have provided roughly eight hours of rest before our alpine start. Unfortunately, I rarely sleep well on my first night in a tent. Between excitement for the climb and various business ideas bouncing around in my head, I spent much of the night awake.
Luckily, I filled a couple of Nalgenes with hot water, which kept me almost too warm at times. I hadn’t realized temperatures would drop all the way to 20°F, but that’s what happened. To trap additional heat, I put my glissading trash bag over my sleeping bag. While that helped retain warmth, it also trapped moisture. By morning, condensation had formed and the outside of my sleeping bag was damp.
We were up at 3:45 a.m. and on the trail by 4 a.m. Before leaving, I took down the tent, which turned out to be a good decision since strong winds swept through camp later that day.
The evening temperature at camp was around 45°F. By morning it had dropped to roughly 20°F. Around 9 a.m. temperatures had warmed back up to about 40°F, and by noon it was closer to 65°F.
The climb itself went smoothly. We took about four hours to reach camp from the trailhead, approximately 4.5 hours from camp to the summit, two hours to descend back to camp, and another two hours to hike back to the trailhead.
Mt. Adams stands at roughly 12,280 feet. At that altitude, the partial pressure of oxygen is significantly lower than at sea level. While the atmosphere is still about 21% oxygen, each breath delivers substantially less oxygen than it would at sea level, which is noticeable during sustained uphill climbing.
By the afternoon, clouds had moved in and covered the upper mountain, so it felt good to be headed down and back at the trailhead before the weather deteriorated.
The glissade down was an adventure. At first we tried glissading with our bodies fully inside the trash bags. But without feet, it was super hard to control our speed so we’d need to self arrest after 10-15ft of travel to avoid going too fast. The move ended up being tucking the trash bags into the backpack waist strap and using the trash bag as a kind of diaper.
Overall, it was a great climb and a reminder that seemingly small gear decisions, like bringing the wrong sleeping bag, can have an outsized impact on comfort.
One thing that would be interesting in the future is exploring some of Adams’ less-traveled routes. The North Ridge route, for example, typically requires an extra day and involves steeper snow climbing. That might be a good objective for next year.
We left Seattle around 7:30 a.m. and arrived at the trailhead around 1 p.m. From there we started the hike toward Lunch Counter. We decided to camp roughly 1,000 vertical feet below Lunch Counter because I had loaned my 20-degree sleeping bag to Megan and brought my 45-degree bag instead.
As we hiked higher, it became clear this was a serious mistake.
The forecast called for temperatures around 20°F overnight, and it definitely was not going to be a balmy evening. Because of the cold, we decided to leave for the summit at 4 a.m. the next morning. That would minimize the amount of time spent lying awake in the cold and also get us back to Seattle at a reasonable hour.
We reached camp around 6 p.m. and were in our sleeping bags by about 7:45 p.m. That should have provided roughly eight hours of rest before our alpine start. Unfortunately, I rarely sleep well on my first night in a tent. Between excitement for the climb and various business ideas bouncing around in my head, I spent much of the night awake.
Luckily, I filled a couple of Nalgenes with hot water, which kept me almost too warm at times. I hadn’t realized temperatures would drop all the way to 20°F, but that’s what happened. To trap additional heat, I put my glissading trash bag over my sleeping bag. While that helped retain warmth, it also trapped moisture. By morning, condensation had formed and the outside of my sleeping bag was damp.
We were up at 3:45 a.m. and on the trail by 4 a.m. Before leaving, I took down the tent, which turned out to be a good decision since strong winds swept through camp later that day.
The evening temperature at camp was around 45°F. By morning it had dropped to roughly 20°F. Around 9 a.m. temperatures had warmed back up to about 40°F, and by noon it was closer to 65°F.
The climb itself went smoothly. We took about four hours to reach camp from the trailhead, approximately 4.5 hours from camp to the summit, two hours to descend back to camp, and another two hours to hike back to the trailhead.
Mt. Adams stands at roughly 12,280 feet. At that altitude, the partial pressure of oxygen is significantly lower than at sea level. While the atmosphere is still about 21% oxygen, each breath delivers substantially less oxygen than it would at sea level, which is noticeable during sustained uphill climbing.
By the afternoon, clouds had moved in and covered the upper mountain, so it felt good to be headed down and back at the trailhead before the weather deteriorated.
The glissade down was an adventure. At first we tried glissading with our bodies fully inside the trash bags. But without feet, it was super hard to control our speed so we’d need to self arrest after 10-15ft of travel to avoid going too fast. The move ended up being tucking the trash bags into the backpack waist strap and using the trash bag as a kind of diaper.
Overall, it was a great climb and a reminder that seemingly small gear decisions, like bringing the wrong sleeping bag, can have an outsized impact on comfort.
One thing that would be interesting in the future is exploring some of Adams’ less-traveled routes. The North Ridge route, for example, typically requires an extra day and involves steeper snow climbing. That might be a good objective for next year.
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