May 26 2012 - Mt Shuksan

Nicole and I along with a number of friends have been gearing up for lots of climbing this spring and summer. Plans for Hood and Shasta were hatched after we had Mt St Helens in our legs. I can't complain too much about this spring, it has been much more predictable than last year, but storms still managed to get the better of our Hood and Shasta plans. For several weeks we did what most climbers do in fickle weather- fled to Leavenworth, basked in the eastside sun and gorgeous weather and got on some granite. Those trips were great, but it left me wanting to make turns in creamy corn snow...

Approach to Pearly Gates

A long drive down to Shasta and a repeat of last year's Memorial Day climb were on tap, but the 50+mph wind predicted convinced us to look elsewhere. The weather looked much better in the North Cascades, and Shuksan quickly popped into my mind as an easy glacier climb to do in order to dial in our system for the year. Emails were sent, plans were hatched and before I knew it we were at the trailhead heading up towards the snow. We had managed to drive all the way to within about a half mile of the trailhead, so the approach was rather straightforward. We followed the tracks of a climbing ranger on skis and a NOLS group and separate guided group both on foot. About a mile up the trail we hit continuous snow and switched over to snowshoes and skis. A bit of slog along the trail and a climb to gain Shannon Ridge yielded amazing views of Koma Kulshan.

Nicole topping out on Shannon Ridge

The last few slopes of the day were softening up quickly and wet slides flanked the shallow gullies along the sides of the broad ridge we climbed. Careful but straightforward route finding yielded safe passage to the first notch were we happily dropped packs and began to throw tents down. After some crevasse rescue practice and dinner and we lounged on our snow couch and enjoyed the beautiful evening light.

Sun slipping down past Artist Point

Koma Kulshan, stars and a bright moon over camp

Stars and cornices above camp

Morning light burns off the fog... but not all of it...

We woke in the morning to foggy conditions as visibility faded in and out towards the Pickets and ominously Kulshan stayed fully cloaked in clouds just off to our west. We geared up and made our way up to the glacier and began to navigate by following the few footsteps that we could see in front of us.

Visibility on the Sulphide

After some discussion and slowly picking our way higher we finally broke out of the clouds into gorgeous views of the nearby high peaks.

Sunshine!

Visibility went in and out a few times, but soon blue skies dominated, and not too long after a clear shot of the summit pyramid came into view. It didn't look far... but, it was.

Summit pyramid finally in view... a few hours up the glacier

tracks

The race against the already warm and saturated snow and sun was on, and we were already well behind. Arriving near the summit pyramid it was already about noon, and we had about 6 miles and 6000' to travel before arriving back at the car. We made the decision to traverse over towards the Nooksak Ridge and enjoy some views before flipping it around and heading downhill. The gulley looked fat and I had entertained ideas of skiing from the summit, but I knew that in the heavy snow it wouldn't have been that great. We descended quickly on the upper slopes, and the intrepid climbers on foot then struggled a bit on the flat slog portion of the glacier before finally glissading a few good slopes down towards camp. 

Climbers descending the Sulpide glacier

We got out to the car in plenty of time to drive out in daylight. A perfect end to the trip was a stop for mexican grub in Burlington. Next up... Koma Kulshan (yes... "Baker").

A bit of recap, and my first take at video here:

Mt Shuksan from Erik Turner on Vimeo.