ravlife

"Oh you guys are riding solids...?"

Summer '25 is officially upon us and it was time to knock out an epic ride with an epic team. This SW Chutes descent of Adams is Austin and I's first backcountry snowboarding experience and it most certainly delivered.

We overnighted at Lunch Counter and carried our boards and gear to the top. Pack weight was ~39 lbs. Because we chose to do the SW Chutes on the way down, our return route did not pass the Lunch Counter. Thus we needed to carry almost all our gear to the top; fortunately Cassie was able to mule some of my items from Lunch Counter to the trailhead =).

Everyone was pretty strong on this one and we made great time to the summit.

Austin and I descended from both the summit and the SW Chutes route on our snowboards. We timed the chutes perfectly. The snow at the top had softened up enough to make the 40% grade managable for my skill level. Despite the butterflies leading up to the drop, we crushed it! 4500+ feet of steeps is unlike anything I've ridden anywhere.

Riding the SW Chutes requires a traverse at 7100 ft to get back onto the South Climb trail, otherwise we would have ended up at Morrison Campground. Climbing Adams fully laden is hard enough, but since we can't skin, this traverse got us good.

Next time we'll come down the South Climb route instead of the Chutes as a day trip. This would save us a ton of weight and the challenging traverse.

Trip Times (estimates)

• 10:20 AM (6/6/25) - Start Hike
• 3:50 PM - Arrival to camp near Lunch Counter (~9200 ft)
• 7:25 AM (6/7/25) - Depart Lunch Counter to Summit
• 9:54 AM - Pikers Peak (false summit)
• 11:30 AM - Mt Adams Summit
• 1:06 PM - Start SW Chutes snowboard
• 4:06 PM - Return to trailhead