Lessons from the mountains part 3 – Expedition to Mt Adams

And we continue…

Summer is running long in the Pacific Northwest, so we gathered a team to attempt a summit of the mighty Mt Adams.

Today, I want to share the experience of this expedition, and more importantly, the inner journey it?took me through.

Before we start, in case you haven’t seen, check out the previous post on Part 1- Mt Baker Expedition, and Part 2 - Mt Rainer Expedition.

Here we go...

Mt Adams

Mt Adams is the 2nd highest mountain in Washington, it’s 12,281 feet, and it’s an active strato-volcano, strato means it’s a volcano consisting of multi-layers of hardened lava. For climbers this means that it’s usually a very steep peek – fun :-) especially with that sulfite smell near the top.

The Mountain real name is Pahto and it's located on the scared grounds of the Kilckitat Native American tribe.

The mountain has a fascinating story, told in native American legend, about the bridge of the gods, starting with two brothers, Wy'east (Mt Hood) and Pahto (Mt Adams) which were fighting over the love of the beautiful Lawetlat'la?(Mt St Helen). They were fighting hard, so the gods decided to end this war and erupted Mt St Helen which created the beautiful Colombia River and valleys around it.

For me, this was a reminder and a message from the mountains, let’s not wait for another eruption to occur in order to bring peace around the world. That message stuck with me and what drove me to want to be in this special place, attempt to summit it and feel it’s strong energy.

The time is now

I’ve been training a lot this past climb season for Mt Rainer expedition, so I felt ready, very ready. I knew I have it in me, which is a very critical step when deciding to attempt a summit.

So, we gathered a team and decided to do it different this time. Given that the south face climb of Adams is not glaciers, there is no need for a rope team, so we opted to do this without a guide and do it all in one day, car to car, 13 hours of intense fun.

There is a fine balance between doing it in a day or two, each has its pros and cons, if you go overnight, you hike less each day, get to camp high up in the wilderness, but you pay for it with carrying a bigger pack (sleeping bag, tent, stove, etc, etc). If you do it in a day, you carry only a “day pack” weight, but you need to accent 7000 feet of elevation, then decent it, all in one very long day.

We slept in the TH, and started at 4:30AM, with a full moon greeting us and headlamps, but before making the first step, I asked the mountain to show us the way and keep us safe, this was my prayer:

And we went, one step after the other, and after 2 hours the sun rose on us. Seeing a sunrise over snow is just amazing, the snow becomes red, and it fills your heart, it also gives you a good reminder of why you are here doing this hard thing.

We kept the rhythm of walking an hour, then taking a 10-15 minute break, and repeat. All the way to the top, one foot after the other, the only way is up.

For me the hardest part was “Pikers Peak”, why? because it’s very steep, the snow melted so it was very loose rock and dirt, but mostly because it’s a false summit, so when you stand on top of it, you realize you’re not done yet, and the summit is way up there, what makes it even harder is the fact you have to go down from that false peak into to the other side, just in order to climb again another 1500 feet. What? who invented this thing? Mountains play mind tricks with you, and this one has its place.

In the summit of Adams, there is a small shack hut, I don’t know why and who built it, but it's there and it off course it has a Tibetan pray flag on top of it. From the top you see a 360 view of Mt Hood, Mt Rainer, Mt St Helen, and it is just beautiful and gives you a summary of the amazing place we live in, heaven on earth.

The inner Journey

Expeditions are fun, but for me this is much more than that, it’s an emotional inner journey as much as a summit expedition.

Today, I want to share with you my own inner journey, how I started climbing and what I have been through.

It all goes back to when I was a kid in Jerusalem, 35 years ago.

When I was a child, I enjoyed two main activities: outdoor wilderness, and hacking computer games on C64 (but this one is for another post).

I was part of a Wilderness Awareness school in Jerusalem, and we did an overnight hike once a month, usually with all the gear on our back, I did that for 6 years and most of middle school and high school and I had multiple guides.

Then Beni came, Beni was an alpinist climber, the best climber in Israel, and he took a side job of leading a group of teenagers in the wilderness awareness, so he was my guide, and he introduce me to rock climbing and that changed my life.

Our hikes now turned into rock climbing trips, and in between we practiced every Friday on the cliffs across the old city of Jerusalem, climbing those boulders less than 0.5mile from the 2000 years old stones of the Jerusalem walls was a treat and it was amazing times, we were a community of climbers and we all knew each other.

And then Beni died. He was buried in an avalanche attempting to summit Mt Lenin - Pamir in USSR, that tragic accident happened in the same year that 2 other climbers from Jerusalem died in other mountains.

I knew all these climbers, and nobody prepares you for these kinds of things, especially as a kid, and it broke my heart, so I decided not to climb again, not because I was afraid of the mountains, but out of deep respect to Beni, I could not go up there again, it was too emotional, and I felt that the mountains belong to another story that doesn’t exist anymore.

Fast forward 30 years and I live in Seattle.

Mt Rainer smiles to me every day and calls me to come. But it wasn’t until my older kid turned 13 and he was into the Greek methodology. He dreamt about Mt Olympus, the house of Zeus, so as part of his Bar Mitzva, we did a trip to Greece and climbed this mountain together. That was my first expedition after a very long time away, and yes, it felt right!

Then my younger kid started going to a climbing gym, and OMG, my two boys are climbing now, and they are good, oh yes, much better than I was or will ever be. I felt proud.

These ques brought me back to the mountains, and I decided that my new promise now is to keep fit and enjoy mountains with my boys and family, we already have some plans for backcountry fun this winter!

I want to end with a message back to you Beni, I have silently promised you not to climb and that has changed now. I am sure you respect my choices, and I want to thank you for being such an amazing mentor to me, introducing me to the mountains and changing my life. I miss you buddy, rest in peace.