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Mount Adams, South Spur
Technical Information
- Mountain: Mount Adams
- Elevation: 12,281ft
- Route: South Spur
- Grade: Easy Snow
- Length: 6,600ft
RAINIER’S LITTLE BROTHER
Mount Adams may be the single most overlooked big mountain in the PNW. Its South Spur route is commonly climbed, but past that, most mountaineers set their sights towards Rainier, treating Adams as a mere training hike. This is common for peaks with hikable summits, but Adams has much more to offer. It’s north, west and southeast aspects offer a range of climbs from easy hiking to grand glacier ascents. While this report is a classic South Spur climb, I urge all mountaineers to give Adams another shot.
In August 2023, for no particular reason and with little planning, Max and I came up with the idea to hike Mount Adams over the summer. Unknowingly, I’d just kickstarted a lifelong addiction to the mountains.
This is a retro report, so I’ll keep it short and sweet!
THE CRUX
A common joke on Adams is that the crux of the South Spur route is forest road 80 . It’s no joke. It really is some of the most brutal forest road I’ve been on. By the end of it, Max’s headlight was dangling out by the wires. The Isuzu hombre isn’t something I’d consider an off-road vehicle, but it sure can take a beating.
After making it through the crux, Max and I packed up and started on the South Climb Trailhead at 1pm on August 10th, 2023. The initial approach is a wide low-grade path that eventually steepens and narrows into rocky single-track. Once the trail tuns to scree and rock, cairns and large wooden posts mark the way clearly. At this point, we were beginning to close in on Lunch Counter with only a couple small snowfields left to navigate.
CRAMPS…
Due to my lack of experience, I had not been staying hydrated or eating much throughout the climb. This lead to severe quad cramps that plagued every step of the last mile to camp. I was stopping to stretch every hundred meters or so…
Once we reached Lunch Counter, Max and I both took a major load off at a decent campsite we’d stumbled upon. Neither of us had ever gained that much elevation with heavy packs before, and we were feeling it. That night, we got to watch our first alpine sunset. Never gets old.
After eating our freeze-dried meals and watching the Lunch Counter mice for a while, we both hit the pillow. Before going to sleep though, we saw a few lights heading up Pikers Peak. I’m not sure if they camped at the top of Pikers or continued on, but a summit bivy has been on my to-do list ever since. (ideally a planned one… bleh)
The next morning, we got a late start around 6am which, at the time, felt incredibly early. We’d planned to hit the trail at 5ish, but didn’t anticipate how long suiting up and eating would take.
IF YOU TURN BACK HERE, YOU’RE A PIKER
After leaving we ran into several other groups making their way towards Pikers Peak and followed their lead. Pikers was grueling and Max’s crampons kept falling off of his boots which wasn’t the worst thing because it gave us plenty of breaks. I made sure to hydrate more often and choke down a cliff bar now and then to keep the quad cramps at bay. Cold cliff bars truly sit like rocks in the stomach. Ive since switched to other fuel (nerds clusters are unbeatable).
After reaching the top of Pikers, we rested and found an inscription on a rock from the 1800’s declaring those who turned back at this point were “pikers.” Max and I weren’t keen on becoming pikers, so on we went. The rest of the climb was an easy walk across the crater with a final push up to the summit.
At the summit, we were greeted with bluebird skies and howling winds. because of this, we only admired Rainier, Helen’s, and Hood for a short while. Even though it was brief, that moment really kickstarted my love for the mountains. I decided I had to climb them all.
On the way down we leapfrogged with a large number of C2C climbers, an idea I thought sounded crazy at the time. Just next summer I’d do my first C2C solo on Middle Sister.
After getting back to the lot, we taped the Isuzu’s headlight back in place and sped off to Dairy Queen.
First climb (eh… hike) in the bag.
BETA
The South Spur route route is 12 miles round trip with 6,600ft of gain. There isn’t much to say here besides follow the trail and its markings (wooden posts, cairns, booter) and you’ll be ok. I recommend doing this climb in July when the trail is mostly snow-free besides Pikers Peak. This spares you from the one step forward, two steps back feeling Pikers can have when climbing in full scree conditions once the snow melts off.
- Gear: 3-season boots, crampons/micro-spikes, ice axe
