My son-in-law and I left timberline of Mt Adams at noon on Thursday, August 11th and got to the “lunch counter” at 5:00 pm. The “lunch counter” is a place on the South side of Mt Adams at approximately the 9,000 foot level where there is a fairly large relatively flat spot. The wind keeps the snow blown off of this spot, and over the years climbers have picked up and stacked rocks in half circle wind breaks. The half circle of rocks is the perfect size to set a tent up in, and most of them have sandy bottoms in them. I haven’t counted them but my guess is that there are over a hundred of these handy tent spots for climbers who want to split their climb into two days.

Climbing from where we parked the truck to the “lunch counter” I was so slow that Kyle went on ahead of me, picked a spot for our camp, set up the tent, and then came back to where I was struggling, and carried my pack the rest of the way. Our camp was a very nice camp with a great view. Kyle brought his tent which was plenty big enough for both of us. We ate our freeze dried dinners, I had lasagna, and then we went to bed on our blow up mattresses and sleeping bags. I slept like a baby even with the wind blowing and slapping the tent around.

I struggled so much with the climb up to our camp that I decided not to attempt the rest of the climb. I kept getting dizzy and struggled not to fall over while climbing. I wanted to make it to the top one more time, but it will have to be in my dreams. Even though it was a major challenge I had a great time on the climb up to the “lunch counter” and the camping experience. Camped right next to us was five Dads and five kids who were all between 10 and 14 years of age. They didn’t plan on climbing any higher, just climbing to there, camping, and playing in the snow.

Kyle left our camp at 6:00 am this morning and climbed to the “false summit” at about the 11,000 foot level, and started getting major dizzy from the altitude, so turned around and came back to camp. We packed up camp and went down the Mountain and drove home and I am now sitting in my recliner writing this. Kyle is young and will have more chances to make it to the top, and may have this time if he hadn’t done that extra climbing helping me make it as far as I did. But I gave it my best shot and I am now officially retired from climbing anything but the stairs to the second floor in our house.