Mt. Adams

Saturday sure did not feel like mid-December on the south side of Mt. Adams. We drove to the South Climb trailhead, found the snowline around 6,000 ft, and noted rain rills extending beyond 9,000 ft. Subtle changes in aspect or elevation made a big difference. We found some wet loose instabilities and recent wet avalanche activity along solar aspects, while more north and west aspects stayed locked up and firm through the afternoon hours.  

Any instability below 8000 ft was confined to steep, solar aspect during the the heat of the day.

The recent AR's did a number on the snowpack around Mt. Adams. We observed rain rills up to 9000 ft and a couple of very large, wet avalanches that likely released during the stormy period on the upper mountain. 

We drove to the South Climb TH and started in trail runners along the South Climb Trail. Fortunately, we didn't have to hike for long before encountering continuous snow around 6000 ft, at which point we transitioned to skinning. The snowpack grew in depth significantly between 6 and 6,500 ft. By 6500 ft, I was measuring consistent depths of 80-90 cm.

While it was pretty warm, the snowpack remained ski- and mostly boot-supportable throughout our tour to South Butte at around 8000 ft. The only exception was steep solar aspects that felt punchy and wet. These aspects also aligned with recent wet loose activity. We found very firm surfaces as we crested onto more west or north aspects. These slopes showed no signs of softening with the fickle December sun. Having ski or boot crampons and a tool to self-arrest with would be critical for travel on these more shaded aspects. 

From afar, we saw evidence of some recent avalanche activity that likely occurred during our AR events. These wet avalanches initiated well above our NWAC elevation bands, but ran quite far into our upper elevations at 8000 ft. These two very large avalanches occurred on the White Salmon Glacier. Check out the attached avalanche obs for more info.

We descended around 1 PM and found good, fairly smooth corn skiing until 6500 ft or so when surfaces started feeling sticky.