Mount Adams USFS volunteering & skiing

February 03, 2026

Mount Adams USFS volunteering & skiing

After undergoing training, my spouse and I volunteered June-September of 2025 as climbing rangers for the Mount Adams ranger district of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in southern Washington State. The forest is named after Gifford Pinchot (1865—1946), a conservation pioneer, the first head of the Forest Service, and a Progressive who had a close working relationship with President Theodore Roosevelt.

Gifford Pinchot in 1925; Library of Congress photo

Our duties included conservation work and public outreach, particularly on the South Climb route. When we skied the route while camping June 14-15, 2025, there were unusual pentitentes formed, making for challenging skiing. This might have been the one time that glissading was quicker than skiing! The ascent required switching between skinning and hiking with boot crampons while carrying the skis given the uneven snow surface and the eventual steepness of the slopes leading to the false summit, also known as Pikers Peak, at approximately 11,600 feet. The snow was too soft for ski crampons to be able to facilitate skinning.

We left the skis at Pikers Peak and hiked to the summit where we soaked in the mid-June sunshine. The summit's deteriorating lookout structure was emerging from the snow. And the snow overall was more reminiscent of July than June in its texture and depth. We conducted public outreach during our weekend of skiing and climbing and provided guidance and directions to climbers. The Mount Adams landscape is vast enough that navigation on the descent can be tricky. Skiers also often blaze an exit path that drops skiers back on the trail for the approach/return to the trailhead. We selected a ski track that in fact deposited us too far west, requiring extra hiking. But with Washington's long June evenings, we enjoyed daylight throughout our climb and descent.