Mount Adams

Mount Adams is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and the second-highest mountain in Washington.
Adams is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, and is one of the arc's largest volcanoes, located in a remote wilderness 31 miles east of Mount St. Helens.
The Mount Adams Wilderness comprises the upper and western part of the volcano's cone. The eastern side of the mountain is part of the Yakama Nation.
Adams' asymmetrical and broad body rises 1.5 miles above the Cascade crest. Its nearly flat summit was formed as a result of cone-building eruptions from separated vents.
The volcano has a volume of 85 cubic miles placing it second only to Mount Shasta in terms of bulk among the Cascade stratovolcanoes.
The Pacific Crest Trail traverses the western flank of the mountain.

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Latest summits

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"Six of us were stuck in a cave for three hours on 8/4/18 about an hour below the Lunch Counter. Severe hail storm with lightening. No warning. We were instantly wet and cold." — blindskov • Aug 5, 2018

"Left Spokane the day before at 2PM and cruised into Cold Springs around 8:30PM. It was a Tuesday so much fewer people than the trip reports that I’ve read before…maybe 15 cars. The next morning I started on the trail around 6AM, wishing I’d woken up earlier. The ascent was spectacular. 5mph winds, no clouds, 40ish degrees. The only downside to the elements was the haze from the British Columbia fires. I never got a glimpse of Hood or MSH, and only a peak of Rainier (once I summited). I knew it was going to be warmer so I decided to go without ice axe (trekking poles only) figuring if anything I’d be postholing because of warm weather. I did bring and use crampons, which would say are quite nice on the final push up false summit. The most difficult part was the final hump getting up to the false summit. Once at Piker’s I met some really nice people out from Baltimore who were meeting their son in Seattle afterward from a cross-country bike trip (He was in the midst of riding coast-to-coast, east-to-west). From there the peak is less than a 1000 feet up, so we all ascended up together-ish. Up to the summit in about 7 hours. We ran into another group at the summit out ..." — zachmitch • Aug 9, 2017

"long slog up, mostly boots and crampons above the shoulder. snow was crappy, hard runnels and variable up high, with a few thousand feet of decent conditions on the SW Chutes lower down where it had softened enough. lots of traversing and up-climbing over various ridges, constantly traversing left on the descent to make it back to the south side route and trailhead, definitely made the descent lots of work and less enjoyable" — hauteroute • Jul 1, 2017

"Solo, 21.9km return with 2297m of elevation gain. Started with sunrise at 5:16am; 5hrs up, 2 - down, 8 hours car-to-car. Had whiteout between 2600m and ~3000m, twice. Plus a thundercloud on the way back, had to run down from South Butte." — alexp • Jun 9, 2017

"Another Cascade volcano ski weekend (I can't get enough of these!)...a short sleep leading into an after work drive to Rogers Pass for another short sleep in the car in the rain, and then working from Vernon before driving 9 hours with buddy to Trout Lake, Washington for 2:30am arrival and 3 hr bed down in the tent. Up at 6am and walking up the logging road at 7:30am with 2.5km of walking until skis on and another 1km to trailhead and then the long slog up the south rib. Buddy wasn't feeling it so turned around half way and I continued up. WTF I have to go down after the first false summit!!! Pushed through with ski crampons to a windy summit and then tried to ski down skier's right of the terminal moraines but massive cornice with huge glide cracks meant I gingerly skied alongside the cornice ridge all the way into the forest. Skied a ways down until finally reaching end of snow and 2 guys packing up there skis. Walked out and ended up at campground and so had to walk 1km back up the logging road to the car. 8 hrs up and 2 hrs down 2300m and 22km. Went to cafe after (great spot) and at 7pm, with prospect of doing it solo and advice from a Portlandian to not take the Palmer lift at..." — alexjoseph • Jun 3, 2017

"South Spur. A little under 4 hours to camp at 9400 feet. A little under 4 hours to summit. 3 hours down to camp, 3 hours down to car. Running water at 6700 feet (Morrison Creek crossing), 9400 feet (northeastern edge of Lunch Counter), and around 12000 feet. Snow level around 7400 feet, though we went up the ridge east of the Crescent Glacier to avoid the snow. Glissaded down the Crescent Glacier. Don't take the big glissade chute, it's blocked by rocks." — mathiasricken • Aug 14, 2016

"Hiked to lunch counter, spent night and summitted 0500 next morning in 20* temp, glissaded down and tumbled when ice axe blade was backwards, got back to camp, rested, broke down tent and hiked down. Fun day!" — HolleyB • Jun 14, 2015

"We had been wanting to try the non-technical route of Adams before the busier summer weekends, and the fantastic weather forecast for this weekend was the perfect opportunity. We were going to do the usual 2-day trip, but decided to go for a one-day ascent despite not knowing anyone who had tried it personally, and seeing few one-day trail reports. Leaving Seattle at 12:45 (seems like the rest of the city had the same idea to get out of town early for the weekend - what traffic!) we were able to get to Hood River in time for a nice dinner and we spent the night at the Trout Lake Motel on Highway 141, which is a nice, quiet little place to get a good night's sleep prior to a long day. The self-serve registration at the Mt. Adams Ranger station is easy, and we took care of that the night before. The drive from Trout Lake to the Cold Springs trail head takes about 45 minutes. The unpaved road is pretty rough, but our friend's Audi hatchback managed to make it without too many scrapes, and we arrived at a nearly full parking lot at 4:45 am. There were several other parties starting at the same time, and it was already quite light out. The beginning of the hike follows an old logging ..." — BryHong8 • Jun 13, 2015

"Had a great climb up Mount Adams. Cold with gusty winds, but great snow conditions for climbing...not so great for glissading. More pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/101381476@N06/albums/72157652253898313 " — reidstidolph • Jun 13, 2015

"Started off crystal clear blue skies at the south climb trailhead on the 4th. We went up to the lunch counter for a quick nap with the intentions of an early morning summit to watch the sunrise on the 5th. We left the lunch counter at 130am it was really windy. Once we got on top of pikers peak we were in freezing fog. We decided to keep going. When we arrived at the summit at 4 am it was still dark plus we could hardly see eachother in the frozen wind. We quickly decided we would not wait for the sunrise. The weather forecast said it was going to be clear. Something had changed so we headed back down early. It's really too bad we had no visibility. One climber with us had never been to the summit. Mt Adam has an amazing 360 view. We will have to go again! " — rebecca1 • Jul 5, 2014

"After failing to summit Adams in one day last year, I was determined to succeed to get the job done this year. It was a very long day. I had some major altitude sickness for the last 2,000' but I pulled through! :) Great day indeed. " — aimk13 • Jul 13, 2013

"We took our time and stayed at the lunch counter over night. Nice weather (70+) provided great views with the exception of smog from the fires. The glissade slides were starting to show exposed rock but still allowed us to fly down." — climbbot • Aug 12, 2012

"Beautiful weather the trail was well marked and used made for easy traveling. We were able to park about 0.25 miles from the trailhead! We had a 4WD Jeep. Made it especially nice since most people had been parking about 3 miles from the trailhead. Climbed to the lunch counter then camped out for the night. The weather was clear. We woke up around 5 am and headed to the summit. Serously nice day. Snow was great. " — rebecca1 • Jul 5, 2012

"Camped at Lunch Counter previous night - ideal location and running water to boot. Fantastic weather both days. Summitted Sunday, glissade was okay - not as epic as last year's trip. Road is snowed in 3 miles from TH, and the entire trail is under snow. Conditions from Lunch Counter to summit - crampons recommended but do-able without them if steps are kicked in in icy areas. My boots were killing me for all 18 miles - this was easily the most misery I've ever been in." — diana • Jul 1, 2012

"Left TH at 2:45 am, encountered snow fields and intense winds, hit Lunch Counter around sunrise, tagged summit 10:45 am with crampons and ice axes, enjoyed a fun glissade back to Lunch Counter and beyond, enjoyed wildflowers on the hike out. Back to car at 2:50 pm." — diana • Aug 20, 2011

"A classic turned grepic (that's grim epic). An absolutely massive slog with almost 7,000 ft vert. Skinning up the huge south face of Pikers Peak, a combination of the heat, altitude, and no more water started to take its toll. Headache, racing heartrate, and fatigue ground my pace to 30 foot spurts with 30 second rests. The goal of summitting dissolved, replaced with just wanting to make it to the top of the false summit. Managed to skin up almost there and made it with a final boot up the last 200 vert. At the top of Pikers, the true summit of Adams seemed too close to turn around; Hinny had motored up ahead of us and was nearly at the top by this point. So Pete and I put our heads down and went for it. The last pitch took us well over an hour as our pace disintegrated to that of Everest climbers on the summit ridge. We dug in really deep and made it to the summit at 3:30pm; views of Rainier and Hood were incredible as the forecasted snowstorm never materialized. After survival-skiing on firm crud down to the col with Pikers, we made the most fateful decision of the day: instead of heading back down the south slopes, we chose to ski one of the main chutes down the SW face. ..." — scott • Jul 20, 2011

"We threaded the needle. I met up with two of my friends, Pete and Scott, in Hood River on Tuesday evening July 19th. They rolled in from Seattle while I was staying with my family in Hood River for the week. The weather had been total crap all week long and despite it being July, it looked to be sheer Armageddon on Adams from the view (or lack of it) I had from Hood River. The reports said freezing and snow above 11,000 feet. I had scoured the internet for any up-to-date accounts of climbs of Adams in the previous day or two and found only one report of someone who turned back because of white out. One of my buddies, Pete, though an accomplished alpine skier who spends his winters at Squaw Valley, had precious little backcountry experience and brought his alpine ski boots for the climb and ski. I grimaced imagining his feet at day’s end. But then again, I didn’t expect him to make it very far out of the parking lot. Given everything, I didn’t think we had much shot of summiting and imagined the snow would be bulletproof anyway. Until 2 pm the day before I was about to pull the plug, but as I wavered on the phone with my friend Scott in Seattle, he said, “You reali..." — hinmania • Jul 20, 2011

"Two-day ascent of Mt. Adams with my brother. Camped at Lunch Counter. There was more of a climb after the false summit than we'd expected. We carried a watermelon to the summit, where we ate it and made other climbers jealous." — joy.perkinson • Jun 15, 2009

"Second attempt via North Ridge worked - first time turned back in a storm. Camped at iceberg filled tarn on north side. Started at Killien Campground with Tecate beers in our packs." — SeattleTrails • Jun 28, 2003

"Blake drove to the Cold Spring Camp. A Here we parked and started up the trail. It was baking hot so we we decidedo to keep out of the snow, we took a dry dusty trail up to the lunch counter here we camped for the night, it was hot that night so we did not set up the tent. Next day we slogged up the south slope to the summit, we were tired so we slept ion the roof of a shelter on the top. We glided down in no time R " — andrewbrintnell1 • Aug 16, 1986