June 3, 2003, Shuksan - Sulphide Glacier

An old friend is visiting from the east coast, so I decided to take a day off work and take advantage of the great weather to hopefully find the snow somewhat consolidated and corned up. We were not disappointed!! We got on our skis just a little ways up the wooded ridge, with snow patches starting just a short while before in the clearcut ascent to the ridge. We had the mountain to ourselves until we saw two people behind us move up and set camp on the glacier. We left them behind and had the summit area entirely to ourselves. The snow was quite well consolidated but still pretty smooth down lower (on the lower quarter of the glacier and below), and was looser corn up higher, with just a little bit of a crusty or layered feel where the snow would settle a little now and then around your skis as you climbed. The steep traverse after the notch felt plenty safe - no sluffing even in the hot afternoon on our return. We skied from the little rocky spot on the SE ridge which is many people's high point. The SE ridge is still fairly snowy, and the gully, as usual, didn't look like a lot of fun. So we skied instead of climbed. The turns were fantastic from top to bottom, with just a little need to be gentle up high so you wouldn't punch too deep and get bogged down. We especially enjoyed ripping through the verglas-topped corn up high, though the turns were great even after we started picking up pollen down low (as we neared the notch on the descent) and things got grabby. We passed three parties who were settling into their camps for the night, but alas we were just up for the day and got out a little before dark. Wow. What a classic!!