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SOUTHWEST CHUTES | MOUNT ADAMS | CASCADES (SOUTHERN) | WASHINGTON | UNITED STATES

SOUTHWEST CHUTES
SOUTHWEST CHUTES
Date Created: 06/02/2009
Last Updated: 06/02/2009
Ranking:Premier
Skiable Vert:4000+ ft
Climbing Vert:5900 ft
Top Elevation:11500 ft
Trailhead Elevation:5600 ft
Ascent Mileage:7
AVG Ascent Time:6-7 hours to Pikers Peak
Ascent Type:Bootpack, Skin, Easy Crampon/snow axe
Trees:none
Slope Aspect:Southwest
Steepest Section:35-45 Degrees
Slope Type:Chute, Couloir
Exit:Clean
First Descent:Hans-Otto Giese, Hans Grage, Sandy Lyons, Walter Mosauer, and Otto Strizek, 1932
Nearest Town:Trout Lake
AVG Snowfall:500+
Snowpack:Maritime

Highlights

A very long ski descent, that has a great fall line and continuous pitch of just over 35 degrees, some times nearly 40. An amazing spring ski! Put that together with a non-technical but long approach and this is a great moderate yet challenging ski mountaineering objective.

Ascent

Depending on the year the road to the trailhead will probably be snow covered until july. You can snowmobile in, but in late spring, early summer, it might be too spotty to do so. If you plan on camping and skiing the southwest chutes, camp in the Morrison Creek drainage. This will give you maximum skiing vertical. If you camp near the South Trailhead you have to ditch the chutes at around 8000 feet and head south to avoid a hideous bushwach. So as i said, whether you are camping or not head up the Morrison Creek drainage and it will be a wuicker ascent, and better descent. It however is not as safe from avalanche danger than the standard south ridge route. Study your topo map as it can be real easy to go up or get stuck in the wrong drainage or gullies. No matter what way you come in head towards the south face that takes you up to Pikers Peak which is the false summit that the chute stems off of. Climb the 2000 vert of the South Face and you can continue to bag the summit or just go for the chute, which will be on the southwest side of Pikers Peak right of the top of the false summit.

Descent

Ski this awesome line and bring your legs as this will take you a couple minutes to ski down! Depending on where you camped or parked be sure to know when to exit the chute. If you came from the Morrison Drainage, just keep following the natural flow while bearing slightly skiers left to about 7000 ft. From here traverse to the next drainage and things should look familiar from there.

Access/Permits

Depending on the time of year you may need to pay for a permit from the Mount Adams ranger station. Otherwise you still need a permit, but don;t need to pay for it. The Ranger station is in Trout Lake. Parts of Mount Adams is in Wilderness.

Photos

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Vert Tracker

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Skiprince: June 7, 2009 Uphill: 6,100 ft. | Downhill: 6,100 ft.

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Comments

Got Something to Say?

snowytorrents wrote on 05/20/10 at 8:08:16 pm pst:

The ATES rating for this route is listed as CHALLENGING when in fact COMPLEX is the correct rating. Much of the terrain is above treeline, and therefore, primarily open.

CAC and Parks Canada have put a lot of work into ATES, including significant financial investments, and inaccurate ratings, such as the ratings provided on your web site, needlessly endanger people and harm the credibility of ATES.

Administrator wrote on 05/21/10 at 08:14:45 am pst:

Hey SnowyTorrents,
Thanks for the feedback. As you probably know this portion of the site is User Generated and we rely on users like you to help keep the info accurate. We will call some local guides in the area and change the rating to what they say.

Thanks for the heads up and we encourage you to continue to help make this site more accurate.

Administrator wrote on 05/24/10 at 1:59:52 pm pst:

Route information has been updated, ATES rating has been changed from CHALLENGING to COMPLEX, thanks snowytorrents!

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