Mount Adams/South Spur

Please note this is a trip report intended to provide an idea of the conditions for future scrambles on this route.

We drove up from Seattle on Saturday morning and made it to the South Spur trailhead by noon, after a brief stop in Hood river for lunch. We decided to take the hood river route because it is gentler on the car, as well as providing opportunities for a quick lunch stop in hood river area.

It took us 3.5 hours with breaks to get to lunch counter from the trailhead. We set up the tent and made dinner while we watched the sun set. It was glorious all day with temperatures hovering in 60s.  There was water flowing from a stream on climbers left that saved us the trouble of melting snow. 

On the next day, we woke up to the magical experience of Mt. Adams' shadow in front of us at lunch counter. We then started our way up the mountain around 7 am (we wanted to have perfect glissading conditions on our way back) and made it up to the summit in 4.5 hours at a relaxed pace with breaks every 1 hour/1000 ft. Although there were no serious concerns of altitude sickness, we definitely did feel more tired than we should have on the way up the second false summit.

Stayed at the summit for around 30 minutes before making our way back to lunch counter. This was the best part of the trip. We were able to enjoy a single glissade!!! from pikers peak to lunch counter for three straight minutes, dropping 1,900 ft. The snow conditions were perfect and we were glad to have chosen the late start. Practice self arrest before attempting this glissade as you would want to control your glissade at least a couple of times on this one. 

We then packed up the tent at lunch counter and came back to our car in a couple of hours. After this, it was the long drive back home to Seattle.

Overall, I highly recommend this to scramblers willing to gain more snow experience after a couple of beginner level snow scrambles.