Mt. Adams…….Killer

Paul Richards asked if I wanted to climb Mt. Adams with his son Chad. Why not, if a 13 year old can I can. We started out at 4200’. It took us 3.5 hours to climb to 9000’. We stopped at lunch counter for lunch. It is a level area at the base of the glacier. We started our ascent. It was slow going, 5-10 steps at a time. Then you had to stop and try and catch your breath. It got colder as we climbed. We reached the false summit 4.5 hrs. later and gone 1.3 miles, and gained 1185 more feet in elevation. I was frozen and out of energy so I did not go with Paul and Chad the last 3/4 of a mile to the very top, 12236’.
There are ruts in the snow that have been made by people sliding sown the mountain. You ride them down. It is called glassading. What had taken me 4.5 hours to climb, took me 12 minutes to slide down to lunch counter. It was a once in a lifetime experience to slide down that mountain.
WE left the house at 5 am Friday and got home at 12:30 am on Saturday. We climbed 8000 vertical feet, went 12.6 miles, climbed for 13 hours with no real break.