A volcano vacation. The next stop after Rainier was Mt. Adams, named after veteran guide of Skier Boyz Adam Lawton. He claimed the summit as a first ascent and the run a first descent for the organization. Of course he was lying because it was first climbed in 1854 and first skied in 1932. Washington's second highest volcano (12,276 ft.) is found above the Hood River Gorge Region, towering 6,000 vertical feet above the small town of Trout Lake and the ranger station. We had a good view of it from Rainier and had a see what Rainier looked like from over there.
est chute, so knowing we wouldn't be crossing any big glaciers we went a lot lighter on gear than we carried on Rainier. And our backs hurt. We made it to the trail head about 3 p.m. and decided to bivy on the mountain and get up early to summit before it got too warm. Trout Lake was 83 degrees when we left to drive to the trail head. Luckily we met some generous Sledder Rednecks who wanted to carry our bags in half of the way. Three Sledder Rednecks on sleds and six thirty pound packs. What a favor. Vrooom, Vroooom!
It felt so good to hike without our packs on, up towards Cold Springs Camp
ground and the South Climb Trail. When we reached Cold Springs our packs were there with the now drunk Sledder Rednecks. We said thanks again and continued up the trail below the Suksdorf Ridge, now with our packs on and large grins across our faces because the scenery was getting wild and beautiful. When climbing Adams you get up above the treeline very fast and can look out and have excellent views of St. Helens, Mt Hood and Jefferson. The late evening alpenglow was illuminating the snow covered peaks and I couldn't be happier to be on a volcano like this one. Our ascent and descent came into view high on the mountain and I was excited for the next day to come. 
We set up our bivy around 6,000 ft. on a sandy ledge with plenty of flat plots to lie down for a quick nap before our early morning mission to the summitt.
The 1:30 a.m. wake up call came in a blink of an eye and everyone was gett
ing packed up to leave. We stashed our bivy gear at our camp and made our way up in the darkness of early morning. By 4 a.m. or so we knew we were going to summit too early. We went lighter than Rainier, moved faster and it wasn't as challenging. We sat down for awhile and dozed off at "Lunch Counter", below the Suksdorf Ridge at 9,000 ft. and continued climbing about an hour later. Crampons were a big help up the ridge, a 2,700 ft 30-35 degree open slope that has great skiing. Pikers Peak is the false summit above the Suksdorf, only 700 ft below the true summit. We summited at 8:30 a.m., way too early for good skiing conditions. Luckily it was a 
dead calm 40 degrees out and we were able to rest comfortably on the summit for two and a half hours before we made our descent. When the conditions became more manageable we began our descent from the summit to above the Southwest chute. Being a little west facing the Southwest chute still had not warmed enough for ideal skiing so we relaxed for about another hour, then experienced a epic run. It started a little firm, but quickly softened to a inch or two of corn snow and it got goood! 4,000 vertical feet of a constant 35 degree pitch and so much room. To me it seemed steeper than that when I stopped to catch my 
breath and regain composure to finish the run in good style. It was an amazing run. A run of a lifetime. I could not believe how good a run it was and long. So long I stopped twice and still my legs were on fire by the bottom. It took about 5-10 minutes for each person to finish the run. Everyone was gitty at the bottom and we were all thinking the same thing. What a amazing line, better skiing than Rainier. It took a lot of traversing to get back to our beach bivy and out to the cars by 2:30 p.m. Our treat was a dip in the Columbia River by all the kite boarders, pizza, then four of us hit the road back to SLC while Bret, Adam and Topher 
continues the Ring of Fire tour with Hood and Shasta. I wish I could have stayed. JF Buf
Mt. Rainier stands at 14,420 ft. tall and is located in WA, two hours southeast of Seattle. It is an active volcano that calls to certain climbers/skiers to be on top of her or at least try. It is the highest volcano in the U.S. and homes 26 major glacier systems covering over 35 miles. 4,000 people climb this mountain a year and about 8,000 attempt it. The Ranger Station in Paradise sits at 5,400 ft, that makes it a 10,000 foot climb to the crater at the top.
With 60-70 lbs packs we left Paradise and headed towards our base camp at 9,200 ft, below the Kautz Glacier. The Cascades weather hit us hard at first, it began to rain and we were all soaked three hours into our approach. Luckily we got above the clouds, it warmed, we dried and our objective was in sight. The Fuhrer Finger, first climbed in 1920 by Hans and Heinie Fuhrer, with Joseph Hazard. A perfect ski trail with a lot of vertical above it.
The next morning we woke up at 3:30 a.m., but did not leave camp until 5. A late start for a really long day. A party of three (non-skiers) were already in the initial chute and we headed up behind them. The first part of the climb was up a 40 degree two thousand foot chute, crampons and ice axes worked well. We topped out at 8 a.m, had a breather and continued up toward crevasse terrain. We were roping up pretty soon after. The crevasses were there, but the snow bridges were stable and we crossed them without any harm. It just took us a long time. The higher we climbed the closer we got towards a huge lenticular cloud hovering above the summit. The 30 mile per hour gusts were becoming a constant 40 and visibility was getting low. I questioned reaching the summit, but we pushed on with all of our layers on. 
We summited around 3 p.m., nine hours after leaving base camp. We stashed our skis 100 ft from the summit walked to the top, spent maybe three minutes up there with winds blowing close to 50 mph and walked back down to begin our descent. The skiing near the top in the lenticular was not that great, hard pack, crunchy, wind effected, still better than walking. As we made it below the lenticular the snow surface warmed a lot and the skiing actually got good. We skied back past the crevasses and towards the chute. The snow in the finger was excellent soft snow and we skied like the boys all the way back to camp with a heroes entrance as three other parties viewed us. They were jealous of our turns and effort.
We spent the rest of the afternoon drying our gear, got to bed early after a warm meal and woke up the next morning to a hot sun heating everything. We packed up camp and skied the remaining 4,000 vert of rolling thiry degree terrain back to Paradsie. It was amazing looking back up at our line we skied the day before. 
Mt Rainier was a big commitment and an excellent objective to ski. It opened my eyes to expeditions like this one and what it takes to reach the summit. An amazing experience for the boys. Thanks to Stefan and Bret Beattie, Adam and Andrew Lawton, Topher and Tom Zimmer, we crushed it. Jake the Buffalo Soldier Boot pack Rasta.
Four miles skinning,
And 3000 ft bootpacking,
Get you? Mt Timpanogos- Cold Fusion Couloir
We had an amazing day this past Sunday. Robbie, a kid from MA (Chris) who works with Robbie and I went on a journey to the north peak of Mt. Timpanogos. It was not easy, but it was fun. We drove as far as we could up American Fork Canyon, unloaded the bikes and peddled up the still closed road past Timpanikee campground. The road was melted out part of the way, but we still needed to travel the old fashion way, skinning another four miles to the base of the couloir. It is an obvious approach because it is such a prominant line and the road is basically flat and grated. We walked past the Grunge couloir, under the north face and directly up our objective. Booting the last section was firm but solid and it felt good to have a mountaineering tool in case of a slip. No dangerous signs of warming were apparent and I summited at 12:00 behind two guys who were crushing it. They left there skis at the top of the couloir and continued to summit. I enjoyed a rest and a sandwich while waiting for the slope to warm. I waited 45 minutes and began desending towards Robbie and Chris waiting 200 meters below. The top turns were still firm and got my attention, but quickly the slope got softer and I began linking turns in great corn. From where I met Robbie and Chris the skiing just got better. More mellow softer conditions made it a quick descent back to the woods below the shot. From here we skied/ traversed all the way back to our bikes. It was worth it to bring our bikes just for this part because we were back to our cars in 15 minutes. 8 hours total car to car. Go get it! Jake the Buf 
