Mt. Adams

Route: West ridge via Willow Creek
Posted On: 7/25/2021, By: yaktoleft13
Info: The torrential rain/hail over the last few days had Willow Creek running insanely high. Myself and two other spent 45 minutes building a log bridge at the crossing at 10.9 (see before and after pic). I waded the higher crossing since my boots were soaked anyway, water went up to my knees. There's rumors of a log bridge upstream, but I didn't bother looking. From the morning to the time I descended, the water level at the 10.9 crossing dropped over a foot. Adams had graupel in just about every shadowed place on the mountain, making all of the rock slick. My dog had a better time on it than I did 

Route: West ridge via Willow Creek
Posted On: 6/29/2021, By: Camden7
Info: We backpacked into willow lake and climbed Mt. Adams and Columbia Point, the two centennials that I missed on my blind 14 hunt, as I passed through this valley years ago... weather was challenging, with fog and clouds constantly blocking sunshine, and highs in the low 30s. Conditions were brutal. Several inches of fresh snow clogged everything above 13,300 feet. The 3rd class couloir up Columbia's tiny northwest face was coated in verglas, and choked with snow in many places. The Kit Carson Avenue was full of snow, and full on treacherous while frozen. Challenger's standard route is pretty good but has some unavoidable snow crossings. Mt. Adams was pretty bad, with a frustrating 8 inches of powder on its upper slopes. The fog was so bad we had to use a GPS to check that we were on the summit. All in all, successful trip, but only because of lucky weather windows, and comfort/competence on serious terrain with snow and verglas. 

Route: Northwest Ridge / West Ridge
Posted On: 6/22/2021, By: cloudkicker
Info: Approached via South Crestone Lake Ascended via Northwest Ridge Descended via West Ridge Hiked out on the Willow Lake trail Highly recommend hiking it this way to get the full Adams experience. S Crestone Lake trail 100% dry to the lake. 99% dry to the saddle between Adams NW Ridge & UN 131xx. Northwest ridge 100% dry to summit. West ridge down to saddle with the unnamed tri is 99% dry. There is one small icy spot about 100-200ft below the summit, easy to avoid and should be gone in a few. Trail down to willow lake is 100% dry. NOTE: The South Crestone Lake access to the West Ridge (a gully up to the saddle to meet up with the willow lake route) is completely snowed in still. So if you are approaching from S Crestone Lake, know that at this present time there is still lots of snow in the gully that allows you access to the West Ridge. Bring crampons and axe or just commit to the NW ridge which is very simple and straightforward. NOTE: Challenger still has a lot of snow along the standard route, and I'm guessing Kit Carson Avenue is still snowed in as usual. Pics of Challenger (or of the W Ridge access from the S Crestone Lake side) available upon request 

Route: Ascent NW ridge/ descent W ridge
Posted On: 6/21/2021, By: Kcmartinez22
Info: Incredible route! All dry barring minor snow crossing in the upper basin heading to the NW ridge. Ridge proper descending the W ridge is the way to go, unless you just really love 2+ scree. Measures at 12+ Miles and 5k of vert. Take your bug spray! 

Route: West ridge via Willow Creek
Posted On: 6/13/2021, By: durkan
Info: All snow can be avoided to gain the ridge. There is one portion on ridge proper where microspikes and ice axe/poles will be useful. Final gully before summit had some lingering ice, but avoidable. P.S. one person in our dropped a phone. If miraculously found, let us know! (I will update this if found) 

Route: East ridge via Horn Ck
Posted On: 1/8/2021, By: blazintoes
Info: Easy drive to Horn Creek TH. Partner and I trenched to 11,500 then solo up the east ridge. Wind karate chopped and body slapped me making the summit unbearable. Bummer because views from Adams are the best. Snapped as many pics as I could without blowing away. Phone pics are terrible sorry d/t processing error from the cold? The snow was excellent for snowshoe grabbage and crampon purchase. Spin drift filled in all tracks on the way down but Horn Creek was nicely packed. Not sure how it'll hold up after this next storm. Returned to a flat tire as a grand prize for getting a winter summit. The wind through the trees was maddening. 

Route: West ridge via Willow Creek
Posted On: 11/5/2020, By: Snow_Dog_frassati
Info: Microspikes were very helpful over the boot pack up to the willow lake. Right now the northern slopes of the Sangres are pretty snowed in but the Southern aspects are almost bare. After the lake no snow gear was required, including the scramble to the summit. Conditions were dry enough for trail runners and the pup. Challenger's standard route is very snowy and would have demanded snow gear. 

Route: West ridge via Willow Creek
Posted On: 10/4/2020, By: Unknown
Info: Kept the route mostly at difficult class 2 with my pup today. There is water above the trail split to filter. Incredible views, dry whole way. Summit register has pen 

Route: West ridge via Willow Creek
Posted On: 8/25/2020, By: jahselassie
Info: Summit register needs a pencil/pen. 

Route: West ridge via Willow Creek
Posted On: 7/4/2020, By: cougar
Info: Summer conditions 

Route: Northeast, South, West, and Northwest Ridges
Posted On: 6/21/2020, By: supranihilest
Info: We climbed some variation of all four of Adam's ridges, I'll try to describe them in order. Northeast ridge from Horn Creek (ascent and descent): The Horn Creek trail is almost entirely dry with exception of one or two muddy spots. There's a lot of deadfall though. At the creek crossing where one must rock hop across we did so and followed the trail through six foot tall willows to the upper lake. We ascended a massive slope east of Adams that was quite unpleasant: steep and very loose. This is the best way up though. We followed it to the ridge crest then attempted to stay on the crest, since the Class 2+ stuff below the ridge was all rather loose. Staying on the ridge entailed Class 3 and 4 scrambling, but the rock was generally solid and fun. The final summit scramble was not as hard as it looks from below. We descended this same ridge at the end of the day and once again stayed on the crest. The slope back to the lake absolutely sucked going down. South ridge to Point 13,580 A (descent only): We dropped directly off of Adam's summit south and followed a series of sloping ledges down. There was some Class 3 scrambling but we didn't look super hard for easier ways down. The rock was generally solid but there was plenty of scree and such on the ledges to be aware of. Route finding is your friend if going to 13,580 A. West ridge from 13,546 (ascent only): A stupid amount of vert going up from the saddle, and it looks steep but is actually quite pleasant. There are grassy bypasses to most of the lower ridge and then Easy Class 3 scrambling on super solid conglomerate to the summit, which we scooted around to climber's right before topping out a second time. It looked like a direct ascent up the summit block would be very difficult. Northwest ridge to Point 13,153 (ascent and descent): we descended this ridge and found tons of scree everywhere, by far the most of any part of the day except the garbage slope above Horn Lake. There's some absolutely massive slabs under the scree and we scrambled down broken tiers of these slabs as we went. Mostly Easy Class 3 scrambling, nothing too difficult. This is a ridge with a lot of elevation loss and re-gain, and was really tough going back up (our third summit of Adams that day) at the end of the day. Be very careful of the loose rock on this ridge. It's easier than it looks but looks can be deceiving, especially if tired. 

Route: West ridge via Willow Creek
Posted On: 6/20/2020, By: LetsGoMets
Info: Dry, summer conditions to the top. 

Route: West ridge via Willow Creek
Posted On: 6/13/2020, By: Bailey Tyson
Info: Dry and good to go. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/27/2020, By: JtheChemE
Info: A few small sections of snow around the Horn Lakes, but the route is doable in trailrunners from car to summit. The ridge scramble is dry, and both summit options also dry. 

Route: West ridge via Willow Creek
Posted On: 5/25/2020, By: Will_E
Info: Summitted Adams peak yesterday. Most of the route from Willow Lake was dry, just a few small snowfields to cross. There was only one part that was challenging, at the point you flip to the back side of the mountain, there was a large expanse of snow blocking what I assume is the usual route. Getting down wasn't too bad, I just sort of jumped. The rock in the area is very fragile, and was hard to get good handholds to climb up it, I initially looked for an easier way to bypass it, but the snowfields on the north side of the mountain were stiff as ice, and steep, and I'm pretty lazy about putting on crampons for short distance, so I climbed up it. Just a little bit hairy. It's the pic with white arrow. Probably worth taking crampons and an axe for that one section in case you need to bypass it, especially if you're bigger than me, the rock overhangs this part as well, had to sort of crouch through it.