eternalX Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 Climb: Mt Shuksan-Fisher Chimneys Date of Climb: 8/21/2004 Trip Report: Planned on hiking to Lake Ann on friday night but horrible traffic in Seattle and a few other problems (one group missd the turn and ended up in Concrete) caused us to just have beers in the trailhead parking lot and crash until 4am. Left trailhead at 5:30 and arrived at the 5800' bivy spot above Lake Ann at about 8:15. The forecast, weather in the distance and a covering cloud had us questioning our journey, but after the cloud layer burned off we continued on. Somewhere in the chimneys, exposure scared our only one girl off and she headed back to the car. We arrived at the base of Winnie's slide at about 11:00. Again we questioned going forward but continued on. Took almost an hour to get up the slide as everyone used the rope one at a time. This part was pretty sketchy with people that had rarely used an ice axe before. The holds were good, but there wasn't a whole lot of room for error. Once at the top, we hiked up about 10 minutes to the ridge line above and then finally decided to turn around. At the slide I set up a rap line down the west wide of the slide. It started to rain. We rapped down 30m and then switched to the fixed line, which felt sturdy. If i had to do this again, i'd have used a rap station that was higher up the slide but centered and tried rapping to the top of the fixed line. Rapping down in the berg was a pain. Now it was really coming down and we still had to get down the chimneys. At first it was pretty scary but after 20-30 minutes we got pretty used to it. The rock is pretty sticky and there are tons of holds. We took our time and got out safely. We were back at the car by 6:30. Lessons Learned: Never go with people you don't know. I was invited on this trip and had never met 2 of the members. Two people didn't even have belay devices. I realized that I was the only one who would've known how to set up any pullies or raps or anything for that matter. The other thing i learned was to go with my own instincts. one member kept pushing to go forward even when we knew it was going to rain and we knew we didn't want to downclimb in the rain. He persudaded us and it upsets me that we let him. Gear Notes: standard glacier gear Approach Notes: Easy route finding. Winnie's is the nly tricky part. Rap down to the fixed line on the way down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashw_justin Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 Good job bailing safely. Given the weather conditions this weekend (as predicted by the forecast...), I would really not want to be anywhere near that kind of route, with newbies. So glad to hear it went "OK," given the risks undertaken... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PONCHO&LEFTY Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 Second your decision to bail out. A party had to be helped off the Sulphide on Sunday morning after getting caught in it on Saturday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 I third it -- good job. If Winnie's slide took an hour, the summit pyramid would also have taken too much time for some in your group. Sharp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriznitch Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 glad you had a safe trip, but never say never! however, having a good talk with potential new partners beforehand about experience and skills is the lesson I take from this one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluck Posted August 23, 2004 Share Posted August 23, 2004 Glad to hear you made it back down OK, but I gotta point out that we warned ya about newbies on this route. It sounds like you handled the difficulties well, but your partners required a bit of babysitting. Of course, the weather didn't make things any easier. Either way, I appreciate the TR. Better luck next time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_K Posted August 24, 2004 Share Posted August 24, 2004 Second your decision to bail out. A party had to be helped off the Sulphide on Sunday morning after getting caught in it on Saturday. Anybody have any info on this party? I know of a group of newbies that were thinking of doing this route that weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan Posted August 25, 2004 Share Posted August 25, 2004 Ranger Kelly Bush told me the group was moderately hypothermic. Sounds like they got wet, cold, and lost, but were otherwise O.K. Good thing. Sharp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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