Shuksan, North Face

[Alpinfox]

Partner and I climbed the North Face of Shuksan this weekend. Things got off to a somewhat rocky start as the road was closed due to the "Ski to Sea" bike race and we had to wait about 30min. Fortunately we didn't get there earlier as the road was closed from 8AM to noon.

 

At the gated road which serves as the trailhead for the North Face approach there was a very sunburned guy at his car. Mr. Son Bern informed us that he and his partner had climbed the North Face. Here is what we gathered of their story: They approached on Friday, complained mightily about the bushwacking. On Saturday they climbed steep, sloppy, sketchy snow, clouds on top obscured visibility so they couldn't find White Salmon descent. Therefore, they descended down the Sulfide glacier apparently doing an unprotected bivy (their tent/gear was still below the North Face) somewhere between the summit and the Sulfide glacier trailhead. At the TH, they met a mountain madness group that loaned them a van which they used to drop Mr. Bern off at the highway. He then hitchhiked to his car, and was planning to drive back to Sulfide glacier TH, pick up his buddy, drive back to our TH, hike in (repeating the heinous bushwack), retrieve their gear, and hike out (repreating heinous bushwack again). His parting advice, "bring lots of sunlotion!"

 

So we were nervous.

 

We headed in and the bushwacking was pretty bad. We stayed high, between 3500-3600ft. The hardest part were about 5-6 stream crossings, 2 of which were quite difficult. It took us an obscene amount of time to cover that three mile approach. Camped just below saddle below NF proper. A bit of rain during the night. Not much wind.

 

Awoke to clear, blackbird (it was still dark) skies at 4am. We had decided to carryover to avoid any epics like Mr. Bern's, so we had to break down camp and pack up so we didn't get moving until shortly after 5am. Beautiful sunrise.

 

Just below the start of the face, we stopped for a quick photo break and my partner dropped his food bag. We watched it slide off and disappear over the cliffs above Price Lake. We could almost hear the Snaffles thanking the heavens for the generous gift.

 

After this setback, we quickly found nice kicked steps which led us up the NF. The steps were deep, obviously made in "soft, sketchy" snow, but our snow was pretty firm. Made fairly quick work of the 40-50 degree slope up to the N. shoulder. There was a short, exciting moment when we had to traverse immediately underneath some hanging ice, but everything stayed put and we breathed a sigh of relief.

 

We had beautiful views of Baker (west), Border Peaks (North) and lots of peaks out to the east which I assume some of which were the Pickets. I wish I had brought along a large scale map to try to identify some of them. There is a really beautiful and dramaticly steep rocky peak to the NNE of Shuksan, not very far away. Anyone know what that one is?

 

After gaining the N. shoulder, we traversed around E side of summit pyramid and started climbing up towards summit. Apparently this is a 3rd class gully in late season, but for us it was 55-60 degree slope covered with a six-inch crust of very firm neve. We got to within about about 300-400ft of the summit where the slope was slightly steeper and the snow slightly firmer and decided that we should have two tools for this sort of bidnez, so we bailed.

 

We descended the White Salmon glacier with lots of fun crevasse/icefall wandering routefinding on increasingly soft and slushy snow. Descended down to snow field below White Salmon hanging glacier and decided to try the valley to clearcut method of bushwacking on the way out.

 

This was not a good idea.

 

After stumbling in/around/on/through slide alder, devil's club, and salmonberry bushes (thorny), and stomping across a few streams, we finally arrived at the base of the clearcut that leads up to the road to the trailhead. Up we went. We were pretty spent by this point and the going was so rough that we stopped for a rest about every couple hundred vertical feet. By contrast, we didn't take a single break on the North Face proper. Of course we eventually made it up to the road, but we were scratched/exhausted/soaking wet/tired/hungry/etc when we got there.

 

I recommend staying high on the approach. The bushwacking isn't too bad compared to the valley/clearcut route although the stream crossings are spicy.

 

The adventurous feel of this circumnavigation of Shuksan and the roughness of the approach gave my partner and I a newfound appreciation for the pioneering efforts of early Cascade climbers.

 

Here's to you Fred:

[Mr._Natural]

nice

[mattp]

Good one, Fox. It sounds as if you got the right day for that route. Tell us more about the rocky peak "not too far off?"

[Alpinfox]

After reviewing some maps and photos in CAG, I'm pretty sure it was American Border Peak. It's pretty much directly North (very slightly west of North actually) of Shuksan, but I'm pretty sure that is the one I saw. My partner remembers the mystery peak as being "just left of a spined ridge running west to east" which jives with Mt. Larabee and the Pleiades. I don't know if he took any pictures that direction, but perhaps a review of those will clear this up.

 

Southern aspect was steep!

 

Cheers,

-AF

[JoshK]

It sounds like am. border peak. I have some picks from shuksan from almost this exact day last year that I could scour up to confirm.

[Dru]

its ABP if it look like the pic on p. 54 of Beckey III

 

if the bush was bad and you stayed high I guess you didnt go in the right way, cause if you drop down, cross WS Creek, go up to the ridge coming down from the saddle and follow that, there is only the one creek crossing and no bush im supposing you hugged the side of Shuksan Arm?

[Alpinfox]

RE: Approach

 

We pretty much contoured around the side of Shuksan arm starting at the end of the road (3750ft) staying around 3500ft most of the way until we hit the snow at around 3300ft. It was smooth sailing from there. We stayed W of WS creek and didn't cross it until we were on snow and headed up toward the saddle.

 

There was a lot of melting going on up there so we probably encountered larger and more streams than usual.

 

Dru: Where are you suggesting one should "drop down" and cross White Salmon Creek? Do you go down the clearcut directly below the end of the road? I don't remember anywhere where you could drop down or cross the valley bottom without encountering lots of brush.

 

 

 

[mattp]

AlpinFox-

So maybe it took 4 or 5 hours to go three miles, but it WAS off trail and you DID have to slog through rotten snow and avalanche debris in addition to the brush and difficult gully crossings. When you say the bushwacking was "pretty bad," what other North Cascade no-trail approach hikes might you be comparing it to? I'd say you didn't do too badly on the approach if you couldn't even start up the road until noon, chatted with other climbers while you unloaded your packs, and made it in to the base of the North Face to camp. Later in the season Dru's approach might be better but I bet your way was faster this weekend.

[Alpinfox]

MattP,

I think we did the approach about as well as it could be done on the way in and I wasn't surprised that it took us as long as it did. My exclamation, "It took us an obscene amount of time to cover that three mile approach" is in comparison to the standard trail-hiking approach, NOT in comparison to the admittedly small amount of bushwacking I've done.

 

The brush on the high traverse was tough, but it was nothing compared to the brush on the clearcut/valley route on our way out. However, the stream crossings on the high route were challenging and one of them was dangerous. That was the reason we elected to try the valley to clearcut route on the way out. It worked out too, because the stream crossings were a piece of cake on the way out.

 

I think in later season the high traverse would still be better than dropping down into the valley and contending with all that brush which is leafless now, but would be leafy in summer/fall. Not only would you not be able to see anything, but salmonberry leaves have spines! Ouch.

 

However, I'm curious to try to plot out Dru's (or other's) preferred approaches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2003 by Alpinfox

[Dru]

Yeah - you go down along the edge of the clearcut in open timberr, cross the creek, get into big timber right away, climb to ridge crest. NO UNDERBRUSH AT ALL THE WHOLE WAY (well almost, i think there was 1 10 foot patch of vine maple we had to walk around). It took us 4 hrs maximum to the bivi site in early July (no snow until near bivi site).

[j_b]

i second Dru's description. i have done it both ways and crossing the creek and climbing to the ridge crest is much, much better.

[Toast]

Are you talking about starting out from end of FS 3075, the road that spurs off to the left before you hit the ski area? If so, it all makes sense. If you're talking about starting out from the ski area (I think most do,) it seems like you'd end up dropping down a lot to cross the drainage and catch the ridge that Dru's talking about. Where did you park the car?

[Juan]

Dru is exactly right. Colin and DPS and I went that way a few years ago and got to the bivi in 3:45 or so. No brush but for one small bit at the creek.

 

John Sharp

[skykilo]

I did the NF in a day Monday. We drove down the logging road, taking a right turn and driving down a crazy overgrown road as far as my little Honda could. The road ended in a clearcut. We followed a creekbed directly down to White Salmon Creek for a few hundred vertical feet. Then we bushwhacked up and right the whole way, whichever seemed more convenient. We ended up going through some blueberry bushes, but it took us 3.5 hours to get to the base of the North Face carrying skis and boots.

 

I just wanted to add another confusing description and some chestbeating to the TR thread. Way to go Alpinfox.