Feb 5 Lake Ann, Shuksan Arm to Chair 8 boot pack

Took advantage of the very stable snow pack to make a loop that I have been thinking about for a couple of years now.  The tour out to Lake Ann was so-so, whoever had set the most recent skin track tried to stay a little high on  the Shuksan Arm which means the deeper creek beds where brutal.  Once out to Lake Ann the snow softened up a bit and made for nice travel.  Up on the Arm there was a nice skin track heading all the way back to the Chair 8 boot pack.  I had always thought that it would be an easy ridge to travel.  Wrong, it had some interesting challenges.  A couple areas required ski's in the ski slots and shorter snow climbes, one face that was steep enough to require a little boot recon to see if it was cliffs on the south face and corniced on northface.  I must must also say that the area directly above the chair 8 is way more exposed than I thought.  The further out from the ski area you get the nicer the north side of the Shuksan Arm gets.  Next time the trip will be the same route in reverse, except I wont use the boot pack from chair 7.  I'll start from the Northwest end of the Shuksan Arm, with an overnight stay at Lake Ann
Don