April 18, Mount Shuksan via Sulphide Glacier
4/15/10
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3708
6
Patrick, Kristen, Jiri and I decided Thursday that weather conditions were looking pretty decent for a Sunday ascent of Shuksan. We opted after some chat to do the Sulphide, which in the end we were glad we did due to some fellows we met on route at the end of the day who told us about the epic amounts of debris littering the entire White Salmon glacier.
Pat, Kristen and I opted to head out earlier Saturday and camp either at the trailhead or hike a few hours in and camp to get a headstart on a big Sunday. We'd agreed that if it wasn't raining at the trailhead we'd head in and if it was we'd camp at the cars and leave with Jiri (the smarter of the 4 of us) started out from the TH around 4am. We headed in since the TH was dry, and were sorely mistaken by that choice. I think we'll remember for all future trips is that if the forecast calls for rain and it isn't raining yet it WILL be raining soon, and 2 hours of hauling your tent and camping on snow is far less worthy than getting up 2 hours earlier and not having to haul your tent.
We were lucky though, and Sunday was a gorgeous day to be on Shuksan. There were some large slide paths where cornice and warming rock have left sizeable debris on route. These seemed to be active in the mid & late day, but were pretty safe early in the day. The pyramid is in great shape, probably good enough to ski for those that are a bit more skilled than us. The upper mountain (like top 1500') was very nice corn when we left below the pyramid around 1pm, and lower down was elephant snot with wet slides easily triggered around 5-6k on west facing aspects.
Sorry, no video, my helmcam is on the fritz :-P.
My pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bramski/ShuksanSulfideGlacier#
Pat, Kristen and I opted to head out earlier Saturday and camp either at the trailhead or hike a few hours in and camp to get a headstart on a big Sunday. We'd agreed that if it wasn't raining at the trailhead we'd head in and if it was we'd camp at the cars and leave with Jiri (the smarter of the 4 of us) started out from the TH around 4am. We headed in since the TH was dry, and were sorely mistaken by that choice. I think we'll remember for all future trips is that if the forecast calls for rain and it isn't raining yet it WILL be raining soon, and 2 hours of hauling your tent and camping on snow is far less worthy than getting up 2 hours earlier and not having to haul your tent.
We were lucky though, and Sunday was a gorgeous day to be on Shuksan. There were some large slide paths where cornice and warming rock have left sizeable debris on route. These seemed to be active in the mid & late day, but were pretty safe early in the day. The pyramid is in great shape, probably good enough to ski for those that are a bit more skilled than us. The upper mountain (like top 1500') was very nice corn when we left below the pyramid around 1pm, and lower down was elephant snot with wet slides easily triggered around 5-6k on west facing aspects.
Sorry, no video, my helmcam is on the fritz :-P.
My pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bramski/ShuksanSulfideGlacier#
Sunday was a gorgeous day indeed! It was nice talking with you guys below the summit. Glad you had fun despite Saturday's weather.
Edit: Nice Pics!
Edit: Nice Pics!
I love your pix, they are great.
How far is it to skinnable snow from the TH? Inquiring minds want to know.
How far is it to skinnable snow from the TH? Inquiring minds want to know.
It's about 1 mile as of Sunday. And probably melting pretty fast.
Did you happen to find any glidelite skins on the trail? Lost some awhile back.
Sorry man. They're probably glacier mulch by now. Else making a nice home for some bluejays.
Hey, sounds like a good time in the mountains despite the rain. My brother and I were thinking of touring up the sulphide glacier, and either making a summit attempt or just ski down from the base of the summit pyramid. However, I have never done this route before, or any route up shuksan for that matter, and I don't know just how long of a tour it is. Anyone have a good estimate of how many hours it takes to go from the car to the summit? Unfortunately, my brother and I are both pretty busy this weekend so I don't think we will be able to make it an overnighter. We were thinking of driving to the trailhead late friday night (around midnight)/early saturday morning, hiking/touring once we hit snow and hopefully making it back to the car saturday afternoon/evening. Does this seem reasonable or are we going to need more time? Also any info anyone has on conditions up there, specifically crevasses and gear notes for making the summit would be helpful. Thanks
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