February 21, 2010, Mt. Shuksan, White Salmon
2/21/10
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2100
1
Given the low avy danger and bright sunshine of the last days, it was time to get away from the lifts and head to bigger mountains so Mt. Shuksan via the White Salmon Glacier became the objective.
We headed up the ski area boundary trail around 7:30, reached the clearcut where you drop into the valley, and promptly began to sabotage our chances of reaching the summit with all of us choosing different routes into the valley. Finding the icy snow treacherous in the trees, I donned crampons and retraced my steps, finding a wanded, flagged route. When I popped out of the woods, I could see one lone ski-packer, Dan, sidehilling his way across a series of avalanche runnels then picking his way through a huge (40' high at it's deepest!) avy rubble field. We converged where you climb out of the valley and headed up, thinking Einar might have sneaked through ahead of us. We stopped at a point with a good view of the valley below and waited once we realized Einar must still be fighting with the trees. He popped into view awhile later apparently having sidetripped up to talk with the lifties then retracing his way to the same flagged route I had found.
Once all together we decided the summit was unlikely given over 5000' of gain lying ahead of us. The plan was now to go as far as we could before our 2:00pm turn-around point, hopefully at least the top of the White Salmon.
We skinned as far as feasible, following a splitboarder track here and there then booting up when it got too steep. Travel was tiring with conditions ranging from 2"-6", uncohesive wind slab, mid-shin soft, wind-affected snow, and the occasional wind-scoured hardpack, a true definition of variable though overall stability was quite good.
We made it to a ridgeline below Winnie's Slide where we enjoyed the sun, soaked in views, ate some food, and got ready to enjoy some gravity.
The ski down was fun, but required constant adjustments to deal with the turn-by-turn variability of the snow, making it a throttle-down kind of descent. All in all, a fun trip in an amazing setting with some alright snow along the way. It was interesting to note that the wind, while not blowing hard, was blowing steady enough to keep a constant trickle of snow running down the hill, filling in many of the uphill tracks and postholes and likely thickening the already-existing shallow windslab nature of the snow.
Pics from Einar are here.
My pics are here. They were shot in rapid shutter mode so are a bit repetitive, but as a slideshow almost play like a video.
We headed up the ski area boundary trail around 7:30, reached the clearcut where you drop into the valley, and promptly began to sabotage our chances of reaching the summit with all of us choosing different routes into the valley. Finding the icy snow treacherous in the trees, I donned crampons and retraced my steps, finding a wanded, flagged route. When I popped out of the woods, I could see one lone ski-packer, Dan, sidehilling his way across a series of avalanche runnels then picking his way through a huge (40' high at it's deepest!) avy rubble field. We converged where you climb out of the valley and headed up, thinking Einar might have sneaked through ahead of us. We stopped at a point with a good view of the valley below and waited once we realized Einar must still be fighting with the trees. He popped into view awhile later apparently having sidetripped up to talk with the lifties then retracing his way to the same flagged route I had found.
Once all together we decided the summit was unlikely given over 5000' of gain lying ahead of us. The plan was now to go as far as we could before our 2:00pm turn-around point, hopefully at least the top of the White Salmon.
We skinned as far as feasible, following a splitboarder track here and there then booting up when it got too steep. Travel was tiring with conditions ranging from 2"-6", uncohesive wind slab, mid-shin soft, wind-affected snow, and the occasional wind-scoured hardpack, a true definition of variable though overall stability was quite good.
We made it to a ridgeline below Winnie's Slide where we enjoyed the sun, soaked in views, ate some food, and got ready to enjoy some gravity.
The ski down was fun, but required constant adjustments to deal with the turn-by-turn variability of the snow, making it a throttle-down kind of descent. All in all, a fun trip in an amazing setting with some alright snow along the way. It was interesting to note that the wind, while not blowing hard, was blowing steady enough to keep a constant trickle of snow running down the hill, filling in many of the uphill tracks and postholes and likely thickening the already-existing shallow windslab nature of the snow.
Pics from Einar are here.
My pics are here. They were shot in rapid shutter mode so are a bit repetitive, but as a slideshow almost play like a video.