Mt. Adams!!!!
As a treat to the interpretive staff at Zigzag, our supervisor Jeremy took us to climb Mt. Adams on Wednesday. It was awesome! We arrived at the trailhead Wednesday around 3:00pm and hiked three miles in until we reached an area where we could camp and climb the rest of the mountain from. We woke up at 2:00am Thursday morning to begin our climb. We climbed in the dark until 6:30 and were able to watch the sun rise before continuing to the summit. Unfortunatly I had altitude sickness around 10,000 ft and puked up everything I had been eating and drinking since 2:00am. After about 7 hours we reached what they call Adam's "False Summit" (you think it's the summit until you reach the top and then realize the summit's in front of you up 1000 ft more). The rest of the group summited while I decided to stay at the false summit...after getting sick I never felt hydrated and my blood sugar level dropped...I didn't have enough energy at that point to summit and then climb back down the mountain. After an hour I saw the rest of the group reach the summit and another hour after that we were climbing back down the mountain, sliding down snow and rock all the way. Once we reached the campsite we packed up and hiked out. Stopping at a restaurant for burgers, beer, and huckleberry pie on the way home we reached Zigzag at 9:00pm, 19 hours after waking up to climb Mt. Adams. It was tiring, but an awesome experience! Everyone should go!