17 miles of hiking • 5500' elevation gain • 2 nights
Big Adventure on the east side of Mt Adams. A friend and I attempted to hike the Ridge of Wonders from Bench Lake to Sunrise Camp. It was extremely hot on our fist day. My friend's pack was too heavy. We ran out of water on the dry ridge. We began to get thirsty looking at all the waterfalls shooting over Hellroaring Canyon (there were a few snowfields left to melt if it came to that). At about 7000 feet we came to a section that was just not passable in our condition. If we had smaller packs and more energy we would have attempted it, but we decided to drop down into the canyon. I had done a similar trip three years ago, descending from Lil Mt Adams to Heart lake. However the gully we descended on Friday was treacherous and we had to take off our packs and down climb a few sketchy scramble sections. Anyhow, we dropped 1500 feet down to the Hellroaring Canyon floor and it was just beautiful! Our campsite for the night was spectacular.
On Saturday we climbed out of the canyon on the southwest side through an idyllic hanging meadow. I set up my camp in an alpine wonderland on the canyon rim and my friend went home. I decided to head up to the Mazama glacier. Two Mazama climbing groups were camped at Sunrise Camp. One had just summited, the other was preparing to climb the next morning. Saw a goat herd and some marmots.
The next morning I awoke to sunrise lighting up the mountain and waterfalls, and spied another goat herd on the bench above me getting up out of bed. Watching them graze the hillside as I had my oatmeal and coffee, well it just doesn't get any better than that. I can die now. What a great trip.
Comments
Jen
July 29, 2013
Only bad between 730 and 830 pm. They disappeared when it got dark and were not around at all in the morning. I had the same issue the second night on the canyon rim meadow at 6400 ft. Higher up there were just a few pesky flies that tried to bite on occasion, but there were not enough to make you crazy.
Roman
July 29, 2013
Cool, thanks! I really want to explore more of Mt. Adams this year & heard at least once about Hellroaring Canyon, how nice that place is :)
Elsie
August 12, 2013
Some girlfriends and I are headed for Sunrise Camp next weekend and contemplated making an off-trail loop/car-shuttle from Bird Creek TH, up to Sunrise Camp, down Ridge of Wonders to Little Mt Adams and Bench Lake. Would you recommend going UP or DOWN the sketchy waterless, ridge you described above? My inclination is down... (We won't be visiting Heart Lake.) Thanks!!
Jen
August 12, 2013
Sure try it on the downhill. When you get to the scree and pinnacles that we found impassable, you can always have the bail out option of dropping down into the canyon instead of backtracking back up to sunrise. There are lots of cliffy areas, we zigged and zagged, used veggie belays through steep brush and had to portage our packs on a few downclimbs. It's a hoot, have fun!
Roman
July 28, 2013
How were the mosquitoes down in the canyon?