July 24, 2011, Mt. Shuksan, North Face

We approached via a descending traverse from the bottom of chair 8. We hoped there would still be enough snow to make it palatable, but that was not the case. I think it took almost 4 hours to go from the car to the snow-covered upper White Salmon basin. Lots of swearing and some blood loss.

From there to the base of the north face it was mostly straightforward on snow, except for a brushy section for a few hundred yards.

The bottom of the north face is fairly sun-cupped with several deep runnels. The snow was soft enough that they weren't much of a problem though. One slightly interesting (on skis) crevasse crossing to access the ramp to the upper face.

The upper face was very smooth and in fantastic condition. On the way up near the final crevasse/bergshrund we encountered a party of 5 coming down. They timed it just right (~2pm) - the snow was soft but not sloughing.

We topped out at about 3:30, and began our descent at 4pm. We had to watch our slough a bit near the top, but overall conditions were amazing and it was a super fun ski!

For the deproach, we decided to ascend to near the top of Shuksan arm and ski down into Rumble Gully. It added about 1600vf to the way out, but as of right now it provides a route from upper White Salmon creek to the ski area that is entirely on snow. No swearing or blood loss, just a relaxing jaunt on snow benches as the sun was setting :-).