"Until one has loved an animal, part of one's soul remains unawakened" — Anatole France

" You were once wild here. Don't let them tame you." —Isadora Duncan

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The weather was perfect for this climb. After a series of climbs in bad weather I was ready to have a summer summit. Mt. Adams is it. How did this climb come to be? Well, the black and white dog in the photo is Merlin's (the red and white dog) sister. I gave Panda to Kim 4 years ago. We recently touched base and thought it would be great to get together with the dogs and climb Mt. Adams. Panda had already climbed Adams two times. This would be Merlin's first big mountain summit. So I got off work Saturday morning, packed all my gear and headed south. After 6 hours on the road and a few stops I arrived at the South Climb parking lot. Caroline, whom I had never met before, figured it was me because of a husky in the back of my truck that looked a lot like Panda. I met up with Caroline, Todd, and Gary. Kim was coming in the morning. This would be Todd's and Gary's first mt. climb.

Tired from a long day on the road I went to bed. A plush cushion, pillows, and comforter in the back of my truck. I believe car camping should be comfortable. At 8 am Kim arrived with Panda in the back of her car. Panda stuck her head out the window and was a wriggling, tail wagging, talking husky. Panda was debarked when she was a young pup by previous owners. Her vocal cords grew part way back and left her with a husky (no pun intended) voice like a 70 year old chain smoker. Deep and gravely. Anyway we got ready and figured we'd introduce the dogs again right before we left. When they did finally meet Panda was so glad to see Merlin. Merlin did his low growl, they danced around each other.

We packed up and were off. We decided to climb up as high as we could the first day so we wouldn't have so far to climb to the summit the next day. It was a great hike through deep forest, then subalpine trees, fields of Lupine and Phlox. As we climbed the terrain changed from forest to lava fields with sharp rock. We put the booties on the dogs. Merlin was trying to shake his off initially and then I think he realized that they were pretty comfortable and left them on. We hiked up the ridge line and then on to the snow fields. We could see climbers coming and going up to the false summit. We arrived at lunch counter and continued to where the rock meets the snowfield up to the false summit. We found a great camp at 9600 ft. with rock walls for wind shields and a stream right near camp. It was only 1pm. We still had most of the day to set up camp, relax, and enjoy the views. It was so warm that we were able to hangout in our shorts and T-shirts until around 630pm. The biggest issue was there wasn't much shade for the dogs. Merlin and Panda Quickly fell asleep. Tired pups. We all met for dinner. Mountain House dinners for all of us. I had my favorite with is Mexican Spicy Chicken. Kim thought she had brought her Beef Stroganoff but found she had brought Chicken and Rice instead. She was bummed. She had been looking forward to her favorite meal all day. Oh well, it was food and we were all very hungry.

Next day we were off by 8am. Late start for mt. climbing but the others didn't have crampons and it was still a bit icy. I had my crampons so I led the way, kick stepping to help make it easier for my climbing partners. We made it up Pipers Peak in no time and then headed for the summit. You dip down in a valley before the final summit which doesn't really seem that impressive from the valley. A short time later we made the summit at the old forest service shack. Ironically Kim who made it up a little before me was talking to a man at the summit. I looked at him and knew that I knew him from somewhere (Great pick up line. Haven't I see you somewhere before?) Oh well, I actually had. Turns out he is a Federal Way firefighter who I work with when I'm working in Federal Way. He summited from the North side. Small world. He was nice enough to take our group photo for us before taking off to the other side of the summit.

Merlin the mountain dog's first summit first big summit. It was puparoni treats for him. He had a great time climbing and greeting all the climbers we encountered. It was so warm we could have spent the afternoon sunbathing on top of the old shack. We took more photos. Kim and I with the siblings. Me with Merlin and Kim with Panda. Then we hiked across the summit to get views from the other side. There was a large crevasse, pinnacled lava peaks, Hell Roaring Canyon below. The terrain from our vantage was much drier then other mountains I have climbed this year but interesting none the less.

On descent we skied down loose sand and gravel, crossed the snowfield to the top of the false summit and then the fun started. The awesome glissade back to camp. The top of the glissade shoot was about 3 feet deep. I jumped in and was off. It had banked recessed corners and was like the luge. I made it down the first pitch and looked behind me. No Merlin. I called for him and his head popped up over the top of the summit. He didn't know where I had went. Suddenly I disappeared. Once he realized it was me he came surfing down the snow. On the next glissade he actually tried to get in behind me and then realized it was slippery and so he ran next to me, catching me at the bottom. We finally made it back to camp. He immediately laid down and crashed. He was definitely getting a workout.

We all ate, packed up and headed down the mountain. 5000ft at about 5 miles to go to our car. It mid day and really hot out. I couldn't wait to get off the lava fields and back into the trees. Finally we crossed a stream and were back in the trees for the last stretch through the forest. At 6pm we arrived back at our cars. Merlin jumped into the back of the truck and didn't move from that spot until we got home. We hung out toasted a great climb and fairly successful Panda and Merlin reunion and then headed out. I had a 5 hour drive home and I was leaving at 630pm.

Thanks Kim, Caroline, Gary, and Todd for a great summit of Mt. Adams. It was Todd and Gary's first mt. climb and they did a great job. You were great company and a lot of fun.