Grant Summits Mount Adams- July 2012

Grant has pretty much been dieing to get out hiking for quite some time.  He used to go about once a month, however recently has only been going about 1-2 a year.  So in the beginning of July, Grant, and a few of his buddies, decided to climb to the summit of Mount Adams (with the goal of summiting Mount Rainier next.  I personally think Mount Adams is nice because you don't have to cross any crevasses to get to the summit.)  Grant and his friend, Lee, and his brother-in-law, Mark left Thursday afternoon.  (Another friend, Amman would meet them later that night after he got off work.  If you look at these pictures, you can only imagine how hard it would've been to hike this at night!  All Amman could do was hope that the small light he saw was their tent and hike toward it.  How extremely scary would that be?  Miraculously, he made it and it was their tent!!  I can't believe he did this at night!!  Wow!  I have thought a lot about gospel parallels for that adventure!  LOL!)  They drove to the trail head and then hiked up to where they would camp that night (the green triangle on the picture below.)  These beautiful pictures came from Mark, Lee, and Grant.

The next morning, they awoke early to complete their summit.  They left a lot of their stuff in the tent, so they didn't have to carry it all to the top.  Lee and Grant had just bought new crampons so they stayed near the rocks for a while, hoping they wouldn't need them (because then they could take them back and save like $200.)  However, they definitely needed them and things would've been a whole lot easier if they would've just opened them in the beginning.  (Quick funny story-- Lee and Jenny and us went on a double date to buy the crampons and when I was telling a friend about it, she said, "You went on a double date to buy tampons!?!?  You guys must be really close!!"  LOL!!!  I was laughing my head off!!  Hilarious!!)  Amman and Mark, who had crampons from the beginning, made it to the top first and then Lee and Grant.

 

It was hard work but they all made it!!  It was a gorgeous view from the top, with perfect weather!!  Above the clouds, they could see many beautiful sights including at least 3 other mountains peaks-- Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mt. Hood.  While enjoying the view, they met a man and his very friendly dog named Beau.  Grant said that Beau reminded him of the dog from the movie, "Up" because this dog had so much energy and flew past them while hiking up the mountain. 

After enjoying the summit for a while, they all sat down and glisaded down the mountain.  They did have their ice axes though just in case.  Looks a bit scary to me!  And then they hiked the rest of the way.

That night, when they were off the mountain, they stayed the night again.  The next day, Grant, Mark, Lee, and Amman went exploring in the Ice Caves.  The Ice Caves look pretty awesome but I think I would get claustrophobic crawling around.  In fact, Grant even did this time, even though he has done this many times.

After climbing around in the Ice Caves for a few hours, they stopped by for some burgers on their way home (which is pretty much a tradition for Grant's mountain climbing trips.)  They also made some phone calls to their wives, to let them know they were safe.  :)  Grant had a great weekend and came home feeling refreshed.  He told me that you burn a few thousand calories climbing a mountain like this... wow!  Crazy!  I am glad he has good friends to climb mountains with!  Maybe I will even get brave and go sometime with him!!  He would absolutely love that!!  :)