SteveHiker
New member
I had an interesting conversation with a couple from England yesterday afternoon in the Appalachia parking lot. I hope it's not going to lead to SAR tomorrow.
We were waiting for friends to return from Mt Madison when they pulled into the lot and got out and started wandering around. They were dressed in a mixture of street clothes and hiking clothes (or at least what I'd consider typical of those styles, whatever), the woman carrying a large purse. They climbed the plowbank, disappeared and then reappeared a minute later with a paper from the little information thingie on the billboard. By now my curiousity got the better of me.
"Are you folks lost?"
They said they were looking information for Mt Adams. Because of their accents I asked if they were from out of town. They said they'd come all the way from England to climb Mt Adams. When I asked why, they said because it is "a holy mountain". Further, Monday is the 50th anniversary of it becoming holy. They asked me if I was familiar with Mt Adams. I said yeah I've climbed it a few times, including a week ago. Then they asked how to get up it and how far it was. I said it was around 4.5 miles, to which the guy said "oh about 2 hours then?". Uhh, maybe for a few people but not for most. I explained the difference between Valley Way and Airline and suggested they buy a map somewhere. I then wished them good weather for Monday inspite of the forecast, to which the man replied, "doesn't matter, we're going anyway."
Now they seemed nice enough, but I'm not sure I was able to impress upon them what they were getting themselves into. Apparently Mt Baldy in the Los Angeles area is another "holy mountain" and they've climbed that one. I don't know anything about Mt Baldy and so have no basis for comparison personally but I have to believe that a summer hike up that and a winter hike up Adams are orders of magnitude different, especially since there's a chair lift on one and not the other.
I checked out the Aetherius website and indeed there is a pilgrimage scheduled for Monday. I am not passing judgement on anyone's religious beliefs. I just thought it was worth sharing in case anyone happens to be in the Mt Adams area. There may be several people more people heading up there and they might not be too prepared. Of course I could be completely wrong too.
We were waiting for friends to return from Mt Madison when they pulled into the lot and got out and started wandering around. They were dressed in a mixture of street clothes and hiking clothes (or at least what I'd consider typical of those styles, whatever), the woman carrying a large purse. They climbed the plowbank, disappeared and then reappeared a minute later with a paper from the little information thingie on the billboard. By now my curiousity got the better of me.
"Are you folks lost?"
They said they were looking information for Mt Adams. Because of their accents I asked if they were from out of town. They said they'd come all the way from England to climb Mt Adams. When I asked why, they said because it is "a holy mountain". Further, Monday is the 50th anniversary of it becoming holy. They asked me if I was familiar with Mt Adams. I said yeah I've climbed it a few times, including a week ago. Then they asked how to get up it and how far it was. I said it was around 4.5 miles, to which the guy said "oh about 2 hours then?". Uhh, maybe for a few people but not for most. I explained the difference between Valley Way and Airline and suggested they buy a map somewhere. I then wished them good weather for Monday inspite of the forecast, to which the man replied, "doesn't matter, we're going anyway."
Now they seemed nice enough, but I'm not sure I was able to impress upon them what they were getting themselves into. Apparently Mt Baldy in the Los Angeles area is another "holy mountain" and they've climbed that one. I don't know anything about Mt Baldy and so have no basis for comparison personally but I have to believe that a summer hike up that and a winter hike up Adams are orders of magnitude different, especially since there's a chair lift on one and not the other.
I checked out the Aetherius website and indeed there is a pilgrimage scheduled for Monday. I am not passing judgement on anyone's religious beliefs. I just thought it was worth sharing in case anyone happens to be in the Mt Adams area. There may be several people more people heading up there and they might not be too prepared. Of course I could be completely wrong too.
