October 15, 2002, Mount Shuksan, Sulphide Glacier

The continued fine weather convinced us to head out on a another big trip with just a brief rest from Sunday's Baker trip. David and I decided to climb Shuksan in a day, but along the way we found really exceptional ski conditions. Too bad our skis were at home. The Sulphide Glacier has continuous snow from the base of the summit pyramid at 8650 ft down to 6000 ft, with more skiable snow down to 5800 ft reachable with a 50 ft carry. Crevasse hazard is very mild, we brought a rope but never felt the need to use it despite being on foot. And best of all (worst of all for us), the snow was 1-2 inches of PERFECT corn over a firm base, all afternoon, over the entire length of the run! No suncups either. It would also be easy to skin the whole length on the way up, especially with ski crampons. The only down side to bringing skis on this route right now is the extremely nasty section of trail between 3500 and 4500 ft, where it appears the Forest Service has done no maintenance whatsoever in the 4 years since my last trip. Dozens of downed trees and lots of very low branches and very tightly spaced trees would make hauling skis up this section a chore. But we're considering doing it if the weather turns nice again this week.

Amar