Mount Adams NFNWR

NFNWR is short for the north face of the northwest ridge on Mount Adams - what a mouthful to say. During the time I’ve been skiing in Washington, there’s been some opinions that this line might be less and less skiable as climate change impacts the mountain. With a fat high elevation snowpack and after seeing that some friends skied this line, I knew it was time to pounce.

adams-nfnwr-1.jpg Not many views of anything on this side of Mount Adams


adams-nfnwr-2.jpg Other than the other volcanos


adams-nfnwr-3.jpg First clear view of the north side of Adams


adams-nfnwr-4.jpg The imposing ski line on the steep north slope of the northwest ridge


adams-nfnwr-5.jpg This is the choke that makes the line discontinuous most years. The skiing through here was garbage, loose, poorly-edgeable snow.


adams-nfnwr-6.jpg I topped out at the pinnacle and abandoned the idea of going to the true summit after seeing how far away it was based on time constraints


adams-nfnwr-7.jpg Looking back up the line


adams-nfnwr-8.jpg Gnarly Adams Glacier


adams-nfnwr-9.jpg Maybe I’ll ski the glacier line a different time too


adams-nfnwr-10.jpg


Notes

  • This was probably ~15 miles and 7300 feet of vertical gain in a little under 10 hours. Being veeery careful and deliberate today.
  • I’m so conditioned to being on the earlier side when it comes to timing spring skiing that I initially started descending at 1:30 PM, but quickly learned to give it more time. 2:30-3:00 PM seems more appropriate for a line like this though obviously there are a ton of variables that goes into it.
  • Climbing on the west face of the northwest ridge was pretty chill, although getting onto the last north face section was a bit firm and exposed.
  • Sooo much less hassle driving to this side of Adams versus the south climb, so I’d like to do more routes here, like west face of Pinnacle.