February 11, 2005, Sulfide Glacier
2/11/05
5092
3
We thought the weather gave us a good shot at Shuksan, so with abundant optimism, we prepared for a Fri. night trailhead bivouac.
The road was impassible in our vehicle due to snow, about 4-5 miles short of the Shannon Creek trailhead. Sort of a bummer, but what can you do. A few more miles or so could have been gained with a high-clearance truck and a chainsaw.
All untold, 2 hours were spent following and shortcutting the road, and practicing astronomy, to eventually arrive at the trailhead. We had wanted to hit the foot of the Sulphide around sunrise (again, pleading optimism) but this was not to be.
There was the expected crust and glop at lower elevations, but a warm creamy variety of powder (chowder?) higher up. The glacier proper was quite firm wind-affected snow (imagine that) that unfortunately never transformed into perfect skiing, because clouds began obscuring our sunshine around 1-2 PM.
Then due to a combination of changing weather, exhaustion, and having set a turnaround time of 2, we turned around a couple hundred feet below the summit pyramid (roughly 8000'). It certainly appeared to be in skiable condition, and two other skiers with similar ideas may or may not have skied it, but we didn't stick around to find out.
The snow was stable. We did however witness some debris from a wet release off of cliffs, and some distant wet slides on really steep slopes.
The Sulfide Glacier looked anything but. Should be a good spring season. Hopefully I'll be in better shape by then.
The road was impassible in our vehicle due to snow, about 4-5 miles short of the Shannon Creek trailhead. Sort of a bummer, but what can you do. A few more miles or so could have been gained with a high-clearance truck and a chainsaw.
All untold, 2 hours were spent following and shortcutting the road, and practicing astronomy, to eventually arrive at the trailhead. We had wanted to hit the foot of the Sulphide around sunrise (again, pleading optimism) but this was not to be.
There was the expected crust and glop at lower elevations, but a warm creamy variety of powder (chowder?) higher up. The glacier proper was quite firm wind-affected snow (imagine that) that unfortunately never transformed into perfect skiing, because clouds began obscuring our sunshine around 1-2 PM.
Then due to a combination of changing weather, exhaustion, and having set a turnaround time of 2, we turned around a couple hundred feet below the summit pyramid (roughly 8000'). It certainly appeared to be in skiable condition, and two other skiers with similar ideas may or may not have skied it, but we didn't stick around to find out.
The snow was stable. We did however witness some debris from a wet release off of cliffs, and some distant wet slides on really steep slopes.
The Sulfide Glacier looked anything but. Should be a good spring season. Hopefully I'll be in better shape by then.
p.s. to the telemarkers who gave me a spare heelpiece when I broke my splitboard binding--thanks!
Way to get after it dawg!
Hey guys, nice trip that day, wasn't it. We've got a picture of you guys with the rest of the Sulphide all around. We'll have to e-mail it to you. We just posted our report. Do you have a generic web host for pictures? I don't think I have that with yahoo mail.
Later
Later
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