Basic Mountaineering Gear (Mount Adams)

Recently, several friends have expressed the desire to climb a mountain. Their first mistake was becoming my friend, but their second and third mistakes, respectively, were asking me for advice and arranging for their own untimely deaths upon the southern face of a dormant volcano. That having been said... I'm Blake Herron. I'm your friend. You should listen to me. Let's be friends on a volcano.

As illustrated below.

I wear shirts.

I first summited Mount Adams with Brendan Thompson. It was not long before I realized my mistake and began contemplating what would be written in my obituary. "Blake Herron. Died of natural causes, those causes being gravity and/or blood loss. His final words to his mother were, 'How many people die on this mountain every year? Like 3. And guess what...3 already have...so we're good.' He was known by many, liked by few, and known to be liked by those few by fewer still. He asked to have his remains fed to a grizzly bear and have that bear made into a rug. A memorial service will be held at the WSU Bear Research Center this upcoming...so on and so forth." For future reference, most of the people that die on the mountain are sacrificed to it. Which brings me to my next point. Pagans can't come.

The purpose of this post is to tell you what you will need to summit Mount Adams. I tell you this having already written two paragraphs because I have not made an outline of this post and to give you an idea of what you will be stuck with on this mountain. Good luck.

No encouragement necessary.

Some assembly required.

The necessities for this trip fall under 5 categories which I have arbitrarily made to form the acronym PATHS. I will speak briefly on each topic in the following list. I will also give an idea of what I would use or what my far superior mountaineering companions, Brendan Thompson and multiple Richardsons (Sean being their chief representative), would use. Here's the list.

PATHS (My first choice was SHPAT, but I didn't think anyone would remember it.)

1) Provisions
2) Apparel
3) Travel Gear
4) Health
5) Special Items

SHPAT happens

Tip#1: Do not heed my advice regarding navigation.