Home > Trip Reports > May 2, White Salmon Glacier, Mt. Shuksan

May 2, White Salmon Glacier, Mt. Shuksan

5/15/06
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3394
4
Posted by samoon on 5/3/06 7:41pm
On this day, my friend bryce and I decide to complete some unfinished business from 10 days ago....when the slide danger had posed an issue.  However, conditions had become stable, and temperatures at the White Salmon lodge hovered around 30F.

We left for chair 8 around 8am and descended to the White Salmon drainage, we were able to ski across the rumble gully drainage and then just shouldered are skis the rest of the way through the fir down to the basin(about 30 minutes from parking area).  Snow was firm, and able to boot our way up the rib adjacent to the glacier.  We made our way to Winnie's slide within 2hrs.  From there we continued to boot through pockets of softer snow up to the Hell's highway.  Just before noon we decided to take a break for the nice views.  We had no plans of going to the summit.....so we didn't make the jaunt.  However, we decided to circumnavigate the summit pyramid so as to benefit from the views from all  aspects of the mountain.  That took about 45 more minutes. 

From the top of the North Face back to Winnie's, and down to the basin was only about 15 minutes of enjoyable, but exposed, spring corn.  There was one big release from the hanging ice fall down to the White Salmon, but was mostly contained to the slopes closest to the rock face.

For those interested in ice, the hour glass looked to be in favorable climbing shape.  Otherwise, I believe this ski outing should be in good shape for a couple of more weeks.  The tour around the pyramid is well worth the time. 

Our day ended by 3pm with a nice hoppy carbonated Belgium style brew, and enjoyed the tranquility of an empty parking lot at the White Salmon Lodge. This ski is one of my personal favorites.

Cheers
Stacy
Thanks for the TR! Sounds like a really fun trip! Any pictures? ;-)

I've got some great shots, but I'm a bit old fashioned in the fact that I use my 35mm film camera.......this is always a bummer, because I can't share them with the rest of the world........that's OK, because it makes my world pretty small.

Maybe next time I'll bring my digital. Sorry.

Stacy

Or perhaps get a film scanner, depending on how nice a 35MM camera (and lenses) you have...

Awesome, sounds like a great trip! I'd like to do this an a week and a half. Can you provide a bit more info about the approach from the white salmon lodge to the base of the white salmon glacier? (This will be my first time tyring this route.

Questions:
1. Do you start by heading to the base of chair 8?
2. From the base of chair 8 do you head out along a road first before descending into the drainage?
3. Did you do more of a traversing descent into the white salmon creek or idd you descend directly to the creek and then ascend the creek to the white salmon glacier?
4. How much snow is in the white salmon valley right now? does it look like it will be descent travel in teh forest for the next couple weeks?

Thanks a ton for any help, I'm stoked to get into this area!!
matt

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may-2-white-salmon-glacier-mt-shuksan
samoon
2006-05-04 02:41:54