Mt. Adams - Lyman Glacier, south portion

Mt. Adams: North Ridge climb and ski descent of the Lyman Glacier (south portion)*first descent

June 4, 2004

Who: Corey Bloom, Cyril Benda, Amar Andalkar, Sky Sjue, Jason Hummel, Sam Avaiusini

Satellite Route Photo:

After Bill Frans and I finally skied the North Face of the NW Ridge (NFNWR) last year, I knew there would always be a reason to come back to the north side of Adams...

When the weather forecast screws you 3 out of the last 4 weekends, it can make you a bit edgy. Steps must me taken to ensure a high quality trip even if it means skipping work. The usual mid-week email and phone exchanges hinted at such debauchery and the scene was set. I set off from Seattle just after midnight to pick up Jason at his house in Tacoma at 1pm. The full moon guided us to the road to Killen Creek where we found Amar's Pathfinder parked roughly a half mile short of the trailhead at the creek proper. A few patches of snow weren't going to stop us from getting to the trailhead. I motored full speed through the first 3 drifts, but the 4th and final one needed "a little off the top" in order to open the road for the season. After 5 minutes of shovel work, we drove the rest of the way to the trailhead. Leaving the trailhead (4,600ft.) by 5am, the ambient light negated the need for headlamps.

Jason and I felt the need to hurry to the lake at the base of the north ridge (7,505ft.) as we didn't want to be chasing the rest of the gang up the mountain all day. Jason and I made short work of the approach and at 7:30, we were relieved to find the crew still at the lake making breakfast. Our crew was now six. The previous afternoon, Sky and Cyril climbed to about 11,000ft. on the North Ridge and skied a route between the "WFNR" and Stormy Monday Couloir. Corey and Amar skied a tasty line from about 10,000ft. down the east side of the ridge ("EFNR"?) onto the Lava Glacier. At last, we set off to climb the chossy but direct North Ridge. Our final decision for a ski line didn't come until we reached the summit plateau. We had numerous choices, but one floated to the top: the south portion of the Lyman glacier. Sky, Corey and Jason along with Ben Manfredi had skied the north portion of the Lyman in late June of 2003, so it seemed only logical to move things over one notch and ski the south portion.

The rest of us sensed a little intimidation in Amar. He was a little concerned, having never seen the route, much less a photo of it. We assured him he was in good company and if worse came to worse we could always climb out and ski a different route. He was contemplating skiing the Adams Glacier solo. And if he was insistent on doing that, I would have offered to partner with him as I didn't think it was a good idea to let him go it alone...Strength in numbers, right?

Skiing down to the entrance of the route, the snow was very water-ice feathered, this made me wonder what the rest of the route was going to be like. Actually, as the slope fell away, the fruits of the last few storms became evident: not powder, not really corn, just nicely consolidated new snow, no ice. The route was very clean and continuous, never really over 40°. There were several nice and long pitches of fantastic fall-line, interspersed with a few weaves around seracs. Next to one such serac, Jason and Amar were standing, looking down the slope directly below. I was getting ready to put away my camera when suddenly the serac broke and began tumbling down slope towards where Sky had just skied. I couldn't see Sky and thought he was in the debris path. Sky had barely enough time to react and get out of the way. I was in such awe, I didn't snap the photo in time.

In the end, Amar loved every serac-riddled inch of the Lyman route...and so did the rest of us. In fact, we were actually expecting it to be quite a bit more gnarly than it was. I think the substantial amount of snowfall above 7,000ft. over the past few weeks had something to do with that! We contoured across the N. Lyman and Lava Glaciers, then over the north ridge back to the lake. Quickly, we were cruising the meadows, heading for the woods...thinking we were home-free. Due to the firm snow on the approach, we had no tracks to follow out. Instincts got us out to the road within a quarter mile of the cars, but not without the requisite Cascade 'schwackage. Jason and I did the trip in about 14.5 hours car-to-car...on no sleep. On the drive back to Tacoma, I appreciated Jason's conversation to keep me awake. For the final push back to my house, its a wonder I made it...I was beat.

Wanna see some photos? Click here

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