Mt Adams – N Face NW Ridge

This is a climb for which my memory has been reduced to only a vague remembrance.  It was a Mountaineers climb but I can’t remember whether it was a “Club” climb (i.e., not associated with a course) or an Intermediate climb (i.e., done as part of the Intermediate climbing course).  I had graduated from the Intermediate course in 1977 so I know I wasn’t doing it for credit.  I don’t remember the names of the three other climbers in the party.

The climb itself was scenic but not too technical.  The NW Ridge bounds the righthand (SW) side of the Adams Glacier as it tumbles down from the broad summit of Mt Adams. In the photo on the right (taken from our camp before the climb), the NW Ridge is the righthand feature descending from the highpoint (which is not the summit but a subsidiary bump called “The Pinnacle”). 

The route ascends, on a diagonal, the large slope coming off the NW Ridge towards the highpoint.  Some route finding through the lower Adams Glacier is needed to gain the slope, avoiding bergschrunds and rock slopes.  Once on the face, the climbing is exposed but not difficult.  We may have done running belays using pickets or flukes where we thought some protection was necessary.  Mostly the route was a long ascending diagonal climb requiring careful foot placement so as to not stumble or snag your crampon on something.

The weather was perfect and I even got someone to take a summit photo of me (Mt Rainier in the background).  We descended via the NW Cleaver, a long ridge of loose unpleasant rocks (but it did offer a nice view of the route in the photo above).

Prusik Peak (West Ridge) – Enchantment Lakes

Prusik Peak is a lovely mountain located in the Enchantment Lakes area of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in the Cascade Mountain.  It is an iconic representation of the Enchantments, showing up frequently in photos with golden larch trees, as like this one I took in 1971.

I climbed it with Karl Kaiyala, a high school friend.  We would see each other occasionally at the University of Washington Intramural Activities (IMA) building and somehow we decided to climb it one weekend in June or early July.  Since he had done the West Ridge route before and was a far better rock climber, to expedite the climb he ended up leading all the pitches.

I remember we hiked up to Nada Lake on Friday evening. On Saturday, we  completed the approach and did the climb.  We camped Saturday night amongst the larch trees on the gentler slopes beneath the peak. Sunday was hike back to the trailhead and drive back to Seattle.

             

 

The weather was excellent, the scenery stunning and the climbing fun (despite the tenacious grip I have on the summit blocks in this photo).

This trip was the only climb I did with Karl.  While writing this blog post, I searched Karl’s name on the Internet and see that he has had a distinguished career as a researcher in the UW Health Sciences Schools.