August 2, Mt. Shuksan, North Face

the bushwachk to the north face was a little knarly, definatly not the fine colorado trails i am used to. The approach did go smoothly though, and it was nice to hike out of the humid air of the white salmon rivery valley up on the ridge, and finally to where the trees cleared and the breeze was blowing. The lower portion of the route looked more broken up than some of the trs i saw here last month. And there was one questionable bridge, but with some pokeing around i found a reasonable route. The connector gully was still in but barely, The snow on the upper poriton of the route was in really good condtion, with almost no suncups, there were a few cracks, but easialy avoided, I took an awkward line to the top, scrambaling throuh a rock band, and doing some ice climbing (which was completely unnessacery as there was continous snow) great snow all the way to the top, I skiied off the side of the north face summit pinacle(who cares) then down and down, great feeling turns, with price lake below. At the bottom of the steepest section at the top, I had to do a small traverse, all on skiis and snow, through a rocky section, then ripper turns, then a small rock traverse(not looseing any el) just above the connection gully, which i did very tight j. turns down, then cruiser snow past some cracks and all the way down to the ridge. An excellant route, not in "fat" condition, but compared to some of the routes ive skiied in colorado and the tetons, it might as well be april or early may.
The tromp back through the bush went well, with plenty of berry breaks by the river. A cool moment crossing the log over the river, with cool air that smelled so good its undiscribeable.