Field Notes · Washington · Cascade Range
Mount Adams
A South Spur climb that ended at the Lunch Counter — turned back a day in by zero visibility and 55-mph wind. No summit. The right call.
16 frames · June 4–5, 2026 · 12,280 ft · did not summit
The climb
We started up the South Spur on June 4th, camped that night at the Lunch Counter around nine thousand feet, and woke on the 5th to a whiteout and wind past fifty-five miles an hour. The summit was still three thousand feet up, somewhere in the cloud — so we turned around. The summit is optional. Getting down isn't.
Chapter 01·June 2–3
The approach
Two days getting to the mountain — the first looks at a peak that hides in plain sight.
Two days out, reading the line from below — the route we'd try lay somewhere up the right-hand skyline.
Chapter 02·June 4
To the Lunch Counter
Up the South Spur, through the old burn and onto the snow, to high camp at nine thousand feet.
Around nine thousand feet, the Lunch Counter in sight — the high point of the climb, if not of the mountain.
Chapter 03·June 4 · evening
The light held
A still evening at camp, and the kind of light that makes you forget what the forecast said.
Alpenglow on the upper mountain — the calm before the system moved in overnight.
Chapter 04·June 5
Whiteout, and down
Morning brought zero visibility and fifty-five-mile-an-hour wind. We made the call, and went down.
The call that matters more than the summit — back down below the weather, the mountain keeping its top to itself.
The summit, optional
Some climbs end
before the top.
The earliest photographs I ever made were on mountainsides, for no reason other than I couldn't not. This is still that. Mount Adams kept its summit this time — and the frames I came back with are better for the honesty of how the day actually went.
Personal work · not for hire