May 5 Mt Shuksane- Sulphide Glacier Approach
5/5/13
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2459
3
Departed Bellingham @ 2:30am. On trail at 4:30am. Forest service told me that you could drive within 0.2miles of the trailhead....they were very wrong. It turned out to be about 1.2 miles of road skinning before reaching the TH. Broken snow on the road/trail for the first two miles with some relatively long carries. The streams are melting out with a few sketchy looking snow bridges that are sagging quite heavily. Avoid! I'd recommend just going skis on pack until around the first switchback on the summer trail.
Shannon Ridge was deep with snow and no foliage snags are showing.
Snow conditions are EXTREMELY variable right now. Certain aspects are in great shape and others are rotten up to 12 inches deep. The steep traverse immediately after the first saddle above Shannon Ridge is the worst though we brought most of it down on the descent.
The Glacier is in great shape. One or two TINY little crevasses starting to show. We cut skin track all the way to the top. It appeared as if people had been approaching via white salmon glacier given the traversing tracks wrapping around the summit pyramid.
The Summit block was VERY slushy (given, it was mid-day when we reached it and probably darn near 50 degrees UGH!). We brought pickets for protection though they were essentially useless in the rotten snow. 4 of us slogged to the top. No rhyme ice was falling down the chute despite the warm temperatures. Summit at 2:30pm (HOURS later than we were hoping). On the way down two snowboarders we coming up the pyramid. Two moderately sized wet slides triggered and almost wiped out the snowboarder's gear they had cached at the base of the climb. We nervously descended now fully realizing that conditions had rapidly become more dangerous. Luckily we made it back to the skis without issue but learned a good lesson.
The ski down was slushy but as always, a treat.
Car to Car 14hrs!!! UGH!!! We were moving at a good clip (minus the summit pyramid)
B-ham to B-ham: 20hrs.
Shannon Ridge was deep with snow and no foliage snags are showing.
Snow conditions are EXTREMELY variable right now. Certain aspects are in great shape and others are rotten up to 12 inches deep. The steep traverse immediately after the first saddle above Shannon Ridge is the worst though we brought most of it down on the descent.
The Glacier is in great shape. One or two TINY little crevasses starting to show. We cut skin track all the way to the top. It appeared as if people had been approaching via white salmon glacier given the traversing tracks wrapping around the summit pyramid.
The Summit block was VERY slushy (given, it was mid-day when we reached it and probably darn near 50 degrees UGH!). We brought pickets for protection though they were essentially useless in the rotten snow. 4 of us slogged to the top. No rhyme ice was falling down the chute despite the warm temperatures. Summit at 2:30pm (HOURS later than we were hoping). On the way down two snowboarders we coming up the pyramid. Two moderately sized wet slides triggered and almost wiped out the snowboarder's gear they had cached at the base of the climb. We nervously descended now fully realizing that conditions had rapidly become more dangerous. Luckily we made it back to the skis without issue but learned a good lesson.
The ski down was slushy but as always, a treat.
Car to Car 14hrs!!! UGH!!! We were moving at a good clip (minus the summit pyramid)
B-ham to B-ham: 20hrs.
Thanks for this TR! Were you the guys on Shannon Ridge at 8am-ish? We (the sleepy campers) had gotten up to the notch before the traverse before the glacier around 3am. Nothing had firmed up over night and we figured going for it would have been more slog-tastic suffering than we wanted. (Moonrise and a couple of meteorites were beautiful though, and totally worth being up at that hour.) You've just confirmed that we made the right call. I'm glad you all got up and down safely!
author=CoriB link=topic=28477.msg119762#msg119762 date=1367952290]
Thanks for this TR! Were you the guys on Shannon Ridge at 8am-ish? We (the sleepy campers) had gotten up to the notch before the traverse before the glacier around 3am. Nothing had firmed up over night and we figured going for it would have been more slog-tastic suffering than we wanted. (Moonrise and a couple of meteorites were beautiful though, and totally worth being up at that hour.) You've just confirmed that we made the right call. I'm glad you all got up and down safely!
That was us. The first two of us went by and nobody stirred in the tents. :) you guys looked tired.
Thanks for the condition's on your trip report and photos. ;)
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