Home > Trip Reports > May 14, 2006, Shuksan NF

May 14, 2006, Shuksan NF

5/14/06
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
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Posted by Oyvind_Henningsen on 5/16/06 1:36pm
Joe E and I got an early start from the White Salmon gate on Sunday.  It was going to be a hot day.  A slowly descending traverse at the end of the road is still a good way to get into the drainage.  Lots of avy debris in gulleys.  A loud sounding ice block falling off the hanging glacier must have woken up the party of 3 we could see high on the White Salmon Glacier.  Onto the NF via a narrow passage in the rock band.  Followed some tracks for a while, but they were covered by fresh wind transported snow higher up.  Party of 2 had set the tracks only a couple of hours earlier after bivying at the col.  Making tracks made for slow going, but we were hoping snow would still be good for the ski descent later in the day.  About top 500 vf of face was harder styrofoam.  Went left at top of face and around to the S side of the pyramid for a quick summit after waiting for the Boalps to descend after a great day on the Sulphide.  Skied down Hells Highway and up to top of NF.  Took it quite easy on the top 500 vf as this section was still hard, not pretty teleskiing, but.....Some good sections with some good turns on the face.  Route in good shape for skiing right now.
Proud work!
Any photos? How early was early for the start?

:D  Glad you enjoyed yourself on the NF.  I love that route and have been meaning to ski it again.
Were you able to ski down the direct face through the rock bands or did you have to head skier's right down the usual gully onto the lower face?

Cool - sounds like a really fun trip! My wife was up on the Sulphide on Sunday with two friends and mentioned two skiers coming up form the North side...she also talked about the traffic jam on the summit and decided to pass. I saw a photo of the crowd - pretty impressive....

Any photos ;-)?

Way to ski a great route, OH.  Definitely a classic.  If OH doesn't have any pictures and it's all right with him I could post one.  Pretty sure Sam could too.

Sam, I also want to ski it again.  But later in the season.  It makes a good Independence Day celebration descent...

I have a route photo in the "Route Photos" section of this site...

We were able to ski the direct face down through the rock bands, it actually looked better then the gully to skiers right.  I doubt the snow in the lower rock bands will last much longer , at least the small patch we used anyway. 

Here is one from climb up



I'll try to post some other pics later tonight.





Wow!  Great  pic... makes me feel like I'm there.  A little shot of adrenaline at work.

Wonderful photo.  Now let's see a skiing shot!  Cool you got that direct line like Sam did.  Maybe that'll motivate me to do it early some year.

Here are the sking pic's as promised







Cheers


With my knee hurt again, I need to stop reading turns-all-year, et al.

;D

But after the jealousy, I'm totally stoked.

Those pics are great. Put a link up to others if you have them. Meanwhile I'll be taking more Vitamin I.

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may-14-2006-shuksan-nf
Oyvind_Henningsen
2006-05-16 20:36:44