First, I debated about whether to post this in climbs, scrambles or skiing. I decided on climbing as it hasn't seen any TRs in a while, and maybe this would spark a new flurry of posting.
Dan, Chris and I headed up to ski/board the SW Chutes on Adams this Saturday. We arrived at the TH around 7pm on Friday to about 100 cars. There was little room left for finding a spot, but we did. Sleeping didn't really work as a non-stop train of cars came through during the night with loud exhausts, headlights on full and radios blasting.
We were hiking (along with 100+ people) around 4:30am. We were slow. The snow was fantastic. No crampons necessary. Plenty of boot tracks to follow on the south side. (We never did any skinning.) ~8 hours from car to summit. AMS hit me hard with weakness and dizziness from Piker's Peak to the summit. By the time we got back to the tops of the chutes it was corn thirty. Sweet turns for almost 5000' from Piker's Peak to around the 6300' mark. Back at the car around 4pm.
The chutes will probably have enough snow to ski for a few weeks. They took a bit longer to soften than the south route. However, the lower portion under the chutes will probably melt out this week making for some unpleasant hiking back to the round the mountain trail. Although, you could still wind up with 4000'+ of skiing if you ski from the summit. (We didn't ski the summit due to my AMS.)
Ant Train up the south route
Summit push
Random snowboarder about halfway down the main chute.
Looking back at the chutes.
Final bit of reliable skiing before hitting the trail.