Cheri and I decided to take on another mountain in the light and fast/car to car style. This time we were going to not only do it car to car but we were going to ski it, which meant we would skin up it and ski down; otherwise known as ski mountaineering.
I had the idea in my head we would do an alpine start, which meant we would leave really early in the morning - probably 3 or 4 a.m. and get started on the route, hiking out with our headlamps and moonlight to guide the way. This is actually easier than you would think when you're on the snow since it has the appearance of lighting up on its own from the moonlight. However, Cheri mentioned wanting to leave at 6 a.m. so I went along with that plan. We also decided to hike up in our ski and snowboard boots.
We drove down Monday afternoon and camped at the trail head (5600 feet) with our alarm set to wake up at 5:30. We unfortunately didn't get ready as quickly as we planned and ended up hitting the trail around 6:30. We were making decent time and I was pretty excited to get the extra 10 lbs in ski gear off my back and on my feet so I could skin up the mountain. Unfortunately, the snow as not in good condition and we could not skin until 8,000 feet and even then we were only able to skin for about 1,400 feet or so before we decided to ditch our skis and boot pack it up the rest of the mountain and come back for them later.
The ranger station told us it was prime ski conditions and there was no sun cuping, which would make skinning and skiing significantly more difficult. The entire report she gave us was incorrect and in addition to that, there was no boot pack already out there as in trip reports we had read from the previous weekend. I don't know if it was super warm up there and it all melted out or what but the conditions were not good at all.
We made it to 11,600 feet or so and made the call to bail off. It sucked because we were only 600 feet from the summit but it was a long 600 feet with a steep uphill and a long traverse. Given what time it was and concern about what the conditions would be like later (icy glissade chutes or even more poor ski conditions) we made the call.
All in all, I don't feel bad I didn't make it. Cheri and I had a good time, tested our ability to push ourselves by going 13,000 feet in vertical gain and loss in one day, and we were able to take away a few lessons.
What I took away:
1) If I am going to ski then hike in tennis shoes and carry the boots because it's hard going having to hike in icy conditions or long distances in ski boots. (the boots I have are made for this but work best when skinning not just hiking)
2) If I wanted to car to car Mt. Adams again I would probably ditch the skis and just hike out light and fast with mountaineering boots. If we had done that we would have made the summit without a doubt.
3) On a big mountain like that I would definitely go with my gut instinct about doing an alpine start.
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