Mount Adams/South Spur

Trip date: July 17-19, 2015. My group of 11 started from South Climb trail head Friday morning and reached the base of the Crescent bowl below the ridge early Fri. afternoon. There is no glacier left, only small patches of snow lower, larger snowfield above two big terminal moraines. There is a good trail angling up the ridge; however, we observed a private party go off route up into the Crescent bowl rocks and snow early afternoon after our arrival at camp. To sum it up, they got into trouble and my entire group helped them down and prepare to survive the night with barely minimal gear. Fortunately there was room for them close to our camp. They had one missing hiker, one fairly serious ankle injury, several other bruised hikers, and some very upset young people. My team worked with them until around 10:30 Fri. evening. The missing hiker had been found by another party and returned in the morning. The whole private party made it back to the trail head next morning without emergency personnel. One of my group accompanied the person with an ankle injury part way down the trail.

Otherwise, fabulous weather on the hike in, sunny but not too hot. Winds picked into the night, strong steady 20 mph or more and higher gusts all night. Blowing dust was problematic. Saturday morning was still very windy, but the winds died down after sunrise, and.nine of my party reached the summit under a clear blue calm sky. I and another participant stayed behind and assisted the private party once again Sat. morning. Eight of us left for home Saturday night, three others opted to stay the second night. All were exhausted both from the climb and the strain from the previous night's incident.