A large mountain covered in snow under a blue sky

Summiting Mount Adams, WA

MOUNTAINEERING

Caira Lessick

2/3/20264 min read

Standing at just 12,281 ft Mt. Adams may be considered a smaller mountain to the rest of the world but in the PNW, she's quite a big lady. Not to mention she is the reason I began to dabble in mountaineering.

Being my very first glaciated summit, I was pretty intimidated but equally excited. I spent a few months conditioning for the climb.

What did conditioning look like?

In the months leading up to the climb we spent our free time hiking (at a quick pace) trails with extreme elevation gain.

Hikes included:

• Mount Defiance trail, Oregon gorge.

• Palmer Glacier via climbers trail from Timberline, Mt. Hood, OR,

• Illumination Rock, via climbers trail from Timberline, Mt. Hood, OR

*These Hikes were completed multiple times for practice and conditioning *

As always, explore responsibly: respect wildlife, protect the land, and leave no trace—so the beauty we experience today remains for the adventurers of tomorrow.

And the climb itself?

My mom, a couple of her friends, and one of mine started our adventure around 2pm July 10th with plans to summit the morning of the 11th. We hiked around 3 miles to lunch counter (9,300 ft elevation), which is base camp of Mt. Adams. We set up our tents, filtered our water, made dinner, and went to sleep. We had a 5am start the next day, headlamps on, cold air biting at our faces, boots crunching against snow that hadn’t yet softened under the sun. The sky was still dark, but the anticipation was loud. You don’t climb a mountain like Adams casually, you commit to it, mentally and physically, long before you ever take your first step and the altitude makes sure you earn every foot. As we hit the base of pikers peak, the group made a pitstop to put on our crampons. Here is where the adrenaline really began to set in.

The group and I slogged up to pikers peak, stopping occasionally to take it all in but mainly catch our breath. My anxiety began to manifest as feelings of dizziness and nausea, I thought I might be coming down with altitude sickness. Despite this, I continued up the face. Once we reached pikers peak (11,657 ft elevation.) excitement drowned out all of the negative feelings I was having. The worst part of the climb was over, and the true summit was finally in sight!

I reached the summit with one other at 10:30am, the rest of the group followed within the next half hour. We sat and ate, took too many pictures to count, and cried at the summit. We could see Mount Rainier in the distance, Mount Hood peeking through the horizon and a small Mt. Saint Helens sitting to our left. Being on the top of a mountain is surreal. I felt small, accomplished, and completely alive all at once. No notifications. No deadlines. Just wind, snow, and the quiet satisfaction of getting there under your own power.

Then came the descent which is arguably the funnest part. Mountaineers talk endlessly about glissading down Mt. Adams. Its an easy, faster way to slide your way back down to camp. For me, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. I like to think of myself as a thrill seeker but I'm also a bit of a scaredy cat and I often lean towards the side of caution. I glissaded a good amount but felt as though I was losing control. I bailed, hopped out of the slide and hiked my way down the mountain making the rest of my people wait an extra 30 minutes or so. We packed up camp, got a quick snack, and headed back down toward the parking lot.

Mount Adams reminded me that adventure doesn’t have to be exotic or far away. Sometimes it’s right there, waiting for you to say yes to discomfort, effort, and a little uncertainty. And honestly? I couldn’t wait for the next one.