June 1 2013, Mt Shuksan

Route up Sulphide Glacier; camp at 6400'

Google Earth view of our route

Northern Picketts from Sulphide Glacier

Last year at the end of May we attempted Mt Shuksan, and were shut down due to getting up to the pyramid a bit late, and the soft snow zapping the energy from the bootpackers in the group. This year we aimed to have everyone on skis, set a higher camp, and get up there a bit earlier. 

We started on Saturday AM from the Shannon ridge TH, which was easily driveable, in contrast to last year where we added ~1 mile of road walking to our trip. There was also less snow up on the trail, as we walked up to the third switchback of the summer trail before hoofing it up the snowslopes to gain the ridge above.

Nicole and Erika heading on up through the trees

Lunchbreak under the tarp - this setup was just practice, but it was put to good use soon after!

Mt Baker hiding behind stormy clouds

Two climbers high up on the Sulphide glacier (view from ridge below notch). Climbers are on slopes above the 6400' bench.

We lucked out for a while with the weather...

...but soon ridgelines started to disappear into grey...

Nicole and Erika making their way up to the notch. Baker Lake and weather behind.

Pulling up to the notch just in time to catch a rainstorm

We huddled under the tarp to keep drive in the intense but short rainstorm that passed through. The UW model proved fairly accurate with its midafternoon system moving through and then general, slow, clearing...

cleared up enough for a rainbow

Never get sick of these peaks above the notch. Would be good alpine climbing practice to traverse them.... next year!

Traverse track from the notch around to the Sulphide Glacier

Bryan leading the way across

Nicole stomping out a skintrack

Clearing skies as we climbed the slopes up to 6400' camp

Upper route shrouded in clouds for much of the late afternoon

Camp. I love camps with views of starry skies...

Good morning Baker - you can see tracks starting from the lower left - up the Boulder glacier

Little snow peak above camp

Summit pyramid visible from camp

Sunrise provided some amazing light as we prepared to head up to the pyramid

Nicole getting ready

It looks so close, but still a few hours away!

High on the Sulphide glacier

Footsteps from prior climbs

Northern Pickets from high up on the Sulphide. Mt Challenger is the largest peak on the left - its namesake glacier shrouded by clouds from this view. Phantom Peak is the high point on the right.

amazing scenery

Mountains and clouds

Looking back down on camp (We are the two BD tents center left. NOLS group above us)

Nicole booting up the slopes above camp

Nicole climbing through the upper Sulphide

It's getting closer! The debris at the bottom of the gullys had us concerned...

Bryan taking in the views

Nicole topping on on the steep slopes above camp

Clicking back into skis for the long slightly uphill traverse to the base of the climb

Getting there

Climbers on top - jealous!

We watched them pitch out walking down the gully. They didn't appear to have much trouble, but did take their time, which was another reason we went over to the ridge around to the right.

Upon reaching the base of the pyramid, I pushed up onto the notch on the right hoping to get a view around of a scramble route to the top. It wasn't promising, as exposed rock moves with downsloping slabs and partial snow cover would make the climbing committing. We hadn't really prepared for a full on technical climb on the pyramid - just a few pieces of rock pro to back up raps if we needed to. Bryan scratched a ways up and checked out the route before pulling the plug on trying the ridge. Being that it was only 11AM, I wish we had taken a shot at going up the gully, but we were afraid that the detached rime ice that was prevalent everywhere would start raining down once the sun really started to work on the upper pyramid. Looking back now I think we would have been OK to shoot for it, and should have just taken a rope up to have a belay down for Nicole as we worked our way down. I was fairly bummed about being shut down again, but now we have an excuse to try an April Nooksak traverse trip... Baker ski area to Mt Shuksan via the White Salmon, then traverse out below the Nooksak ridge before climbing Ruth and Icy and out Hannegan Pass TH. More likely for the gully to be fatter and better for skiing then too!

We flipped it and started out ski down, enjoying lots of consolation turns on the way down. Up high the conditions were great corn, though the visibility kept us from being able to open it up too much, it was difficult enough just staying together.

Bryan about to ski the last slopes down to camp

Back at camp we ate some more food, hydrated and started the packup for the long ski and walk out. Despite the thick heavy snow below, I only wiped out once, in spectacular head over heels flip action. The tripod and random junk I had tacked onto the outside of the pack all made the flip with me, though!

And the timelapse turned out OK - was a bit cloudy in the middle of the night, and the method I was using to transition from night to day has still left some significant flickering... more practice needed there! Also think the tripod sunk into the snow as it was warmed by the sun in the morning... will need to fabricate some metal clamps to attach to the legs.... or maybe some sort of repurposed snowbaskets...

Stars over Shuksan from Erik Turner on Vimeo.

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.