Home > Trip Reports > June 22, Trip to Westfalia in the Shuksan Camper

June 22, Trip to Westfalia in the Shuksan Camper

6/22/13
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
4762
8
Posted by radka on 6/26/13 2:06pm
The gang was up for a treat last Saturday €“ a trip to Westfalia in the Shuksan Camper! Spending a night at the trailhead got a whole new dimension in Das Kamper. Fridge! Stove! Bed! I was in love at first sight.

Das Westfalia Kamper


Westfalia! Ja ja!




It was hard to say bye to the super plush and comfy Westfalia in the morning and go up this Shuksan mountain on a wet trail and with cloudy skies. But hey, Sally and Dennis drove all the way to the trailhead in the morning to join us and Jeff already left at 3 am to go for the summit with a plan to meet up with us on the glacier so why not. Earlier, our group had a teeny bit of summit ambitions, too, but considering all the additional weight we would need to carry to make it happen, we quickly abandoned this foolish idea.

It was no alpine start for us and we left the trail head at 8:30ish. The gang must have been really snow hungry because they pretty much ran up the dirt trail and any attempts to keep up made me feel like I was going to die. Snow started at around 4500 ft and as soon as we got out of the forest, we transitioned to skinning.

The signs that we crossed over to summer could not be ignored as evidenced by

Skins not sticking to skis


Bindings breaking


And you know it€™s definitely summer when you think avalanche beacons serve for ordering pizza€¦and the rest of the team doesn€™t even have beacons. Hey wanna call me from under that slide?


Our group was easily identifiable on Sulfide Glacier €“ we were the ones with the cloud. The cloud pretty much followed us anywhere we went and served as a humidity and heat blanket. As we went higher, so did the cloud. At around 6500 ft we met up with Jeff who had gone to the summit on what he reported to be dicey, wet snow on the pyramid. We emerged from the cloud momentarily before the cloud caught up with us again.





We made to it to about 800 feet below the pyramid in poor visibility so we turned around and started skiing down. Or up? I couldn€™t tell.



There were some 6۪۪ of wet, new snow, but the skiing wasn۪t too bad.



A little lower, we escaped the cloud for some nice views of the Cascades and Baker.











Back in the forest, it was pollen skiing. Luckily only those with white surface skis were affected €“ the rest of us with black skis did not see any problems.  8)



Some more pictures: http://radkaandchris.smugmug.com/Skiing/20/Trip-to-Westfalia-in-the/30176932_Hg4K5v
Thanks Radka, a perfect ending to our fun trip ;-)  But no mention of the Mexican Alps we were aiming for??

Skiing was pretty good (sorry for weird color, the tracks were very faint):

The Tapatio traverse and the conquest on Mount Chimichanga? Kenji, you will have to explain that, I wouldn't even know where to start  ;)

Nice, including your great photos. I've slept at that TH multiple times in  a VW "weekender" Eurovan - no neato pop-top, but the foldout bed was sweet for that gig!

The thread's drifting into a "warming hut on wheels" (as we like to call our's) appreciation thread.  The secret's out.  ;D

Back on target:  thanks for posting this one, this one is on "the list" and we were just wondering about the conditions...

-Dave


author=Kyle Miller link=topic=28905.msg121653#msg121653 date=1372443466]Awesome pics!


Indeed!

Thank you all for your kind comments!

Dave - warming hut on wheels - I LOVE it! I think all of us were secretly plotting where we could take Westfalia in winter. I hope the owner realizes what he got himself into. Now he won't be able to get rid of us  ;D

You have a great eye, Radka.

We call our camperized Ford van (replaced the aging and simple eurovan with something we can stand in, with heat, fridge, and microwave) "Ramada"

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june-22-trip-to-westfalia-in-the-shuksan-camper
radka
2013-06-26 21:06:04