[TR] Mt. Shuksan - White Salmon Ascent- Hanging Glacier Ski 3/6/2010

[dotter]

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - White Salmon Ascent- Hanging Glacier Ski

 

Date: 3/6/2010

 

Trip Report:

Trip Date: 3/6/2010

Route: Hanging Glacier, Mt. Shuksan. Ski Descent

 

(Will add pics to post later. For now links below should work)

http://picasaweb.google.com/danotter/HangingGlacierMarch72010#

http://picasaweb.google.com/danotter/HangingGlacier#

 

 

The trip came together as many do. Chris and Liz e-mailed me early in the week, saying they were thinking of coming up Saturday to ski the White Salmon. Aaron was on the fence. I had snapped a photo of the Hanging Glacier a couple of weeks prior and sent it out as motivation, hoping to plant a seed that would turn a White Salmon trip into something bigger. Aaron was in. The weather window was perfect. We had a team of four, so we could split up if we wanted to go for different objectives.

Friday night I got a call from Forest. “I heard you’re going to ski the White Salmon tomorrow. Can I join?” I told him that our plans had evolved. We had talked about skiing the Hanging on a previous trip, so of course Forest was in.

“OK, we’ll pick you up around 3am.”

Chris, Liz and Aaron showed up Friday night. I asked what time they wanted to get going. “I was thinking early” said Chris. When I suggested a 2:45 departure, he said “I was thinking early as in like 6”. It didn’t take to much convincing that it would be worth it to get an ueber-alpine start. Just in case, I made eggs for everyone in the morning in an effort to ease any lingering resentment.

We arrived at the White Salmon lot and unloaded the car next to a red van with skis and a pack next to it. If the occupant of the van is reading this, we apologize. Upon lining up our skis, we realized we had an appropriate quiver for the day’s objective: 4 sets of Shuksans and a pair of Bakers.

We descended the clear cut below Chair 8, sideslipping the first half, then donning ‘poons to handle the mossy down-climb through the woods. Within an hour we were at the valley floor and skinning.

It started getting light as we approached the bottom of the White Salmon. After we cleared the debris and the slope angle began to steepen, the snow turned to boot-deep recycled powder- perfect. The higher up the White Salmon we climbed, the greater the temptation to simply ski a 3,000’ powder run. But then I would look up at the Hanging and regain my focus. We kept waiting for the snow to develop a sun skin, but apparently it was protected enough and the snow stayed good all the way to the top of the White Salmon. If the Hanging was holding the same snow, this was going to be good.

We cruised up Hell’s Highway and up to the summit. This was my first time on the summit of Shuksan and it was great to be able to ski off the tippy top. There wasn’t a breath of wind and the snow on the south side was getting baked pretty quickly, so we ripped our skins and skied off the summit pyramid.

Chris and Liz were at the bottom of the gully. They decided to head down the White Salmon to enjoy the powder. I was jealous. Forest and Aaron are workhorses and I was struggling to keep up with them.

From the bottom of the pyramid we took a high traverse to the left across the Crystal Glacier. With minimal sidestepping and booting, we popped up and over onto the top of the Hanging Glacier.

And the snow was good. Really good. Probably the best snow I’ve skied since November.

We accessed the broken up portion of the Hanging on the skier’s right side and made beautiful, fall-line turns down the gut of the glacier. Skiing below massive seracs, exposed to a fatal fall over an ice cliff is a lot less nerve-wracking when you’re skiing hero-powder on a bluebird day. One more leftward traversing pitch later, we were next to the terminus of the Hanging Glacier and we had to make a choice. Do we drop left and exit through a chute and down a slab off to the side of the Hanging or do we drop right, and take the more aesthetic line right under the ice cliff?

We chose right and I dropped in first. I side-slipped a ways and crossed to the right side of the ice cliff, trying to get a view of what was below. All I could see was rocks covered in ice. It didn’t look good. Maybe we could rig a v-thread, but it looked as though we would have to rap again lower down. The entire slope had ripped out and the only snow left was on the far right and it looked thin. The exposure was too much for me. I called up to Forest and Aaron that I was thinking of coming back up.

But a little voice kept creeping into my head: “What if it does go? We don’t know what the other side looks like. Maybe that doesn’t go. What if this does go and you make the wrong call?” I had an internal debate, the glacial wall towering 100’ above me, pressure building every second. Finally I said “I don’t feel comfortable making this call, guys. Unless someone wants to come down and check this out, I’m coming out.”

I feel bad for being indecisive and exposing another member of our party to icefall. This was a learning experience for me.

Aaron skied down further than I had been to where the rocks rolled over into nasty, icy gullies. After a minute poking around the snow on the right he called up “I don’t like it. I’m coming out.”

To save time, Forest took off down the left hand chute to rig a rap if needed. I waited for Aaron. A few minutes later I heard Forest yell “It goes!” A few more minutes had passed as I watched Aaron climb up towards me, when I heard Forest call

“Come down here”

“Aaron’s almost here! Two minutes!” I replied.

When we finally skied down the chute 45 degree chute and saw Forest with his skis on his back. He had hit a patch of ice, tumbled, lost his poles and climbed back up to warn Aaron and me. We proceeded to sideslip down the 50+ degree slope, trying to avoid knocking snow on Forest. As the slope mellowed we made a few last nice turns down the apron. After a fruitless effort looking for Forest’s poles we schussed to the valley floor and prepared to do some extreme moss cramponing.

While transitioning, Chris and Liz showed up and we all slogged up the final slope together.

 

 

Time: 12:30 car to car

 

 

Gear Notes:

Gear Notes: 3 x 30m rope (to maintain flexibility of group), 2 screws, glacier kit, crampons, axe, second tool, skis, ski crampons.

 

Approach Notes:

Approach: Dropping the clear cut below Chair 8 is the way to go. Descend snow on right side of clear cut as long as is comfortable. Switch to crampons and head through woods, tending right, but not too hard.

 

 

[bigeo]

Nice! Also skied Shuksan that day. Wondered about the up track and no down. If you were the ones who broke trail, gracias. A couple skied off the top just as the other two in our party were heading up the Summit Pyramid. I'm guessing they were in your group. What a stellar day.

[Joe_Poulton]

Everyone was out on March 6 it seems!

 

http://www.examiner.com/x-18581-Portland-Mountaineering-Examiner~y2010m3d12-North-cascades-activity

 

Awesome day!

[Jaredvg]

This is totally bad-ass!!! The thought of skiing the hanging glacier is some next level stuff! We were cruising around the ski area having a lazy day and saw you guys heading for your objective and blasted down to the car to grab the binoculars. That is some seriously sick s#*t!

[dotter]

Nice! Also skied Shuksan that day. Wondered about the up track and no down. If you were the ones who broke trail, gracias. A couple skied off the top just as the other two in our party were heading up the Summit Pyramid. I'm guessing they were in your group. What a stellar day.

 

You have Forest to thank for the track. He broke all day, the guy's a beast.

That must have been Liz and Chris you saw. We just missed you in that case. Glad you got out to enjoy the day.

Edited March 15, 2010 by dotter

[silence]

sweet ... awesome pix too ...

[phil_tatman]

Forest you dog! Is there anything you havent skied this year? Nice work!

[Taluscat]

FOREST aka "captain crushin it"- you the man! DO, you're a sicko too....

[Sol]

sick