That dang Mountain!

So the 3rd time was not a charm for Casey and I. Over this past weekend we made our 3rd attempt at summiting Washington's 2nd highest peak, Mt. Adams. It was our 2nd try this year with out best climbing companions the Newgards (Casey and I attempted it in the summer of 2002 as well). Below is a group shot at the South Spur trail head. When we were here in May we couldn't even get to this trail head which meant an extra 5 miles of snowshoeing, so glad we didn't have to do that trek again!

The first day of our 2 day ascent we hiked to our high camp about an hour or so below Lunch Counter a popular high camp site. We set up camp and were all in much better spirits than our last attempt. We ate dinner, goofed off for the camera a bit, and got some great sunset shots. Our plan was to assess the weather in the morning when we get up and decide if this was summit day or not. When the alarm went off at 0430 we looked out and saw clear skies, that meant it was time to get ready to climb!

Everyone was feeling pretty good on the way up, except me :( I head a pretty queasy stomach for the first couple hours of the climb. It finally went away and I was actually feeling great. We all climbed really well and I'm so proud of all of us. We pushed on and for me the excitement was growing as we reached Piker's Peak, I had summit fever for sure! As we approached the top of Pikers we thought were almost there, at the false summit......we were wrong! Below is a view from our campsite of the mountain. The highest peak you see here is Pikers Peak at 11,598 feet that is what we accomplished (the highest Tiffany and I had ever climbed :))

Once on top of Piker's we could see that we still had another good push to the summit at 12,276 feet and probably another hour and a half at least of climbing. We also had been keeping an eye on some clouds that had been rolling in around our high camp area and were worried about the possibility of having to descend in a storm(the weather forecast had not predicted good weather on the mountain for Sunday). At this point we all made the decision to head back down down to camp.....the fun way! We got to glissade almost all the way back to our camp, it was amazing and a bit scary at first.

Back at camp we had a snack, packed up and set out for the car. We made great time getting to the car in less than 2 hours! Once there we headed straight to the nearest place to find food, a little cafe in Trout Lake. It was interesting to say the least, the food took a long time to come out and we were starving, there was good people watching, and the food wasn't bad once we got it! Next stop was a tiny store with all sorts of random stuff. We got some snacks and firewood and left for our next destination, Takhlakh Lake Campground. We napped, started a fire, listened to the family next to us try and set up a tent for over an hour(pretty good entertainment), had some drinks and snacks and went to bed early. I had probably the worst night of camping sleep ever and was ready to go in the morning. We packed up and headed to Randle for breakfast at Mt. Adams cafe, cute and great food! After filling our bellies it was time to go home.

At home we cleaned all our gear and let it dry out in the beautiful sunshine. It was just Casey and I last night, the kids are still at his parents! We were both definitely missing them and wished they had been home. They will be home later tonight and I cannot wait!!!!!!

****More pictures of our trip to come once Casey gets some editing done****