A former editor-in-chief of Campus Current climbed a 12,277-foot mountain in Washington State in August.
Tomi Brunton, a first-year student at St. John’s College, and Brunton’s father, David, climbed Mount Adams together.
“I don’t think I had ever seen any mountain before,” Brunton, who became Campus Current’s youngest ever editor-in-chief in 2023, said. “I had seen large hills that I thought were mountains, right? But this was something else. This was a real mountain. And once you see a real mountain, you’re like, “Oh, all the things that I’ve seen before are just hills.””
Brunton had climbed rock walls prior to the August summit for sport and hobby, qualifying for Regionals twice, but said rock climbing “helped me less than I hoped it would.” Brunton said rock climbing “was, like, largely the way I de-stressed, but I did it primarily in the name of competition and getting stronger.”
Brunton said climbing walls and climbing the mountain had little in common.
“I wasn’t climbing up a vertical side of the mountain with a harness,” Brunton said. “This was kind of like an intense, multiple-day hike with some scrambling up rocks, right? And for the final chunk of the mountain, climbing a glacier with an ice axe and crampons, which are basically spikes that go on the bottom of your shoes.”
Brunton said the most difficult part of the summit was the glacier section on the descent.
“The way that you try to go down the glacier section of the mountain, you do what’s called glissading, which is basically sliding,” Brunton said. “At one point, my ice axe got ripped out of my hand when I was trying to stop, and I thankfully had it attached around my wrist. But that meant that I ended up dangling from it.”
Mount Adams is the second-tallest mountain in Washington state, and is the largest active volcano in the state. The mountain is often described as non-technical, or a good first climb for beginner or casual mountaineers.
The mountain has a legacy within the Brunton family.
“My dad climbed it when he was my age,” Brunton said. “My grandparents climbed it. That whole side of my family are definitely, like, explorers, adventurers, outdoorsy people.”
Brunton selected Mount Adams not just for the legacy, but also for the connection it built.
“It was a really nice bonding experience with all of that family,” Brunton said. “It definitely made me feel a lot more connection to that part of my family.”
Brunton added: “I can say that I certainly want to climb a mountain again. Like, once you do it, you kind of get the bug. I definitely want to increase the difficulty gradually. But mostly, I think, like, the best parts about the mountain are not how difficult it is, but how beautiful it is and how peaceful it is.”