Adams kicked my ass. The way up was long and uneventful, going for the long, easy route to the summit. From Appalachia take the link to lowe's path which basically runs along the top of Nowell's ridge. There were two parts to the trail, first the crossover to Nowell's ridge from Durand's. It's 2.7 miles crossing over, with moderate climbs. Once on lowe's path (3.0 miles), the trail gets steeper and rockier, and like most of the presidentials, the summit is a long, arduous clamber through broken boulder fields. Mt. Adams is much like Madison in this regard, but the boulders are bigger and there are more of them. I took it pretty easy and reached the top in a bit under three hours. Having started at 2:20, this brought me to the top at about 5:16, right on schedule. As long as I can get down as quickly as I got up, I'll be down before dark. No prob. Nothing can possibly go awry.
On the way down, things quickly went awry. In my own defense, however, please consider that I wouldn't know how awry for another hour or so.
I took a different route down, though I had planned to go up and back with lowe's path. The trail became very steep, very quickly. And it wasn't really a trail, either, just a miles long river of boulders, slowly making their way downhill. You can see this in the picture.
About two minutes from the top, before the trail even turned cruel, I stepped off trail by just a couple feet, but the surface wasn't solid and I bashed my left shin in two spots. Damn that hurt. Before the day was over, I would also tear off the scabs on my left knee, bash my left knee on a rock, bash my right knee on a rock, break my camera lcd and stub my left toe. I felt like some wiseguy had taken a Louisville slugger to my legs.
Anyway, the trail is crazy. I've been on some rough trails the last few weeks, but they were all blazed blue. I don't know what blue means, but it includes some pretty rugged climbing. If you see orange, think twice about following. I see pretty quickly that this trail goes straight down the headwall of King ravine, which generally forms the border between Mt Adams and Mt Madison. On the Madison side of King ravine is Durand ridge, along the top of which runs air line directly to Madison hut, between Madison and Adams. Durand runs north from Madison. On the other side of King ravine is Nowell's ridge, running directly up Mt Adams. Running along the top of Nowell's ridge is lowe's path, which I took up. King ravine is between the two ridges, a classic glacial cirque with a knife-edge ridge (Durand) and a huge, flat headwall. And I was climbing straight down the headwall. The boulders ranged from the size of small cars to small buildings, and while they appeared at first glance to be stationary, after a few minutes at the crazy angle of the headwall it was possible to sense their inexorable downward flow. This was punctuated by the fact that you couldn't trust any size rock. I stepped on one the size of sofa and it began to slide downhill. Crap. All I need is a rockslide. And we've been getting record rainfall for over a month, including every day for three weeks. The ground is soft and soggy and the rocks want to go downhill. This is serious scrambling, all four arms and legs getting a good workout. At some points, it must have been about a 50 degree slope. Extremely slow going. Many of the boulders were over 10 feet long, and a slip could easily drop you in a hole you can't get out of. Possibly with a broken leg or skull. I definitely want to pass on that.
Great view, too, of the whole valley. After about an hour, I had gone maybe a half mile, and dropped probably a thousand feet. Looking down, an endless stream of boulders descended and disappeared into the early evening gloom, through which my path was destined. This was exhausting, both physically and mentally, what with the removal of any margin of error. I did start one small rockslide, with about 20-30 rocks, the largest being about 50 pounds or so. I got lucky and they didn't pound me, but it was close thing. This trail is nuts, even for me. It's drizzling out and the sharp rocks are very slick. For the most part, I don't move my feet without also having two solid handholds. And, like this paragraph, the boulders and rocks and climbing just went on and on and on. I'm well into a second hour of this (and I'm not taking rests, either) before the trail eases off. For another mile or so it's just a hard trail (now blazed yellow rather than orange - woo-hoo!). By now 2 ¼ hours have passed, and I may not even be halfway down. It's past 7:30 with total overcast, so it's dim and flat and getting darker by the minute. My legs are hurtin'. I try to keep up as fast a pace as possible while I have whatever light I still have. I know that in half an hour half the rocks and roots will become invisible.
Despite the dark, the next hour was productive and uneventful. I practically kissed the sign which read "Appalachia 100 yds" because I really didn't want to go another mile in the dark (I was hoping it wasn’t the sign that said "Appalachia 0.9 mi.). It was 8:39. My legs were covered with mud and bleeding in four places. I can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow!
Here's what one of my mountain books says about the King ravine trail which I descended in the rain today. "Traverse of King Ravine involves rough scrambling over boulders and ledges and is not advisable in wet weather or for descent." No shit. It further describes the "very steep, rough ascent of the headwall" with a climb of over 1100 feet in less than half a mile. Yes, I remember. See photos. Looking up at the wall could give you vertigo. Could but didn't. It was a good day not to break my leg!
2:56 up 5.7 mi
3:20 down 4.6 mi
6:21 total time on trail
about 10.3 total miles
4600 foot climb
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