[TR] Mt. Shuksan - Fisher Chimneys 4/28/2007

[burglar]

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - Fisher Chimneys

 

Date: 4/28/2007

 

Trip Report:

I'd like to start my first TR on this board with a question. How many signs does it normally take people to call off a trip before they actually go ahead and cancel? Does it just depend on the severity of it? A superstitous event? Forgotten gear? Well, here's a few signs we should have followed but didn't (some more superstitous than others).

 

1. Weather supposed to be spotty according to all sources throughout week leading up to trip. Drive is 6 hours from Portland meaning we should be sure there's a good chance of climbing before heading out on a precious free weekend.

 

2. Post in various forums about conditions on Shuksan in April and question as to why people don't do it this early in the year yields little to no information. Knew sulphide route was gone, but why is everyone doing this route in July? Hmmm.

 

3. Windshield wiper motor craps out on SR-542 at 12:30am 10 miles from ski lot in rain/sleet storm. Dumb and Dumber move of head out the window brings us to safety, 45 minutes later and a whole lot wetter.

 

4. I forgot the whiskey. (luckily remedied by local store on the way up...but still)

 

Ok, so the plan was to drive up Friday night, sleep in car, up on Saturday for trip to Lake Ann and up the chimneys for a comfy night sleep and beautiful views of Baker. Then up in the morning on Sunday, summit, back to camp before afternoon. Nice hike out on Monday and back in PDX monday night. Seems doable, if not a little hurried.

 

The problem? It's raining/snowing on Friday and we're not even to Seattle, my wipers stopped working shortly thereafter, and I'm realizing that although I've gone about as light as I can get, my pack still will weigh close to 50lbs.

 

Lo and behold, saturday morning we wake up in an iced over car to beautiful blue skies. A few mountaineer club members pull up and tell us the latest report says no chance of precip until Tuesday. Hey, this is shaping up huh? Why believe a weeks worth of weather watching when a total stranger in the parking lot tells you something you want to hear? One pop tart later we're on the trail.

 

Start out on snowshoes up the summer road to Austin Pass. Blew past the trailhead location (there are no signs this time of year) and descended down a gully near Panorama point instead. A little slippery, and pretty wet and heavy snow. No worries, Lake Ann is like 3 miles as the crow flies so it'll go quick. We'll be to the chimneys just in time for lunch.

 

Long story short, snow in the valley was calve deep slush, and very few snow bridges remain over Swift Creek. It took us 8 hours of hiking (1 hour for lunch) to get to the overlook near lake ann. That's right, not even to the base of the chimneys yet. By that time reality pretty much set in and we knew there was no way of getting to the chimneys, ascending with 50lb packs and summiting the next day to get back to Portland by Monday night. Solution: drop all gear and snowshoe for a little while and take photos.

 

 

While Saturday was beautiful, we woke up on Sunday morning to overcast skies and a few snow flakes. By the time we broke camp and headed out, it was snowing so bad our tracks from the day before were filling up. But that's ok, becuase it was breakable crust the whole...freakin...way...sigh.

 

In the end, we got back out around noon (only 3.5 hours misery-shoe out) and headed back to town under mostly clear skies. All in all, a good physical conditioning trip, but I'd rather not sluff miles in heavy snow carrying all that weight for just a night of snow camping. Doing so basically steered us towards using the same 4-letter word response to any and all the following questions/statements.

 

1. I forgot the whiskey.

2. I don't think that snow bridge is safe to cross either.

3. We haven't even reached the lake yet, it's still another mile to the base of the chimneys from there.

4. There's no way we're getting up the chimneys, across the glacier, up the tower and back down again tomorrow in one piece.

5. We still have to hike back out of here.

6. Turning the car off for 2 days hasn't fixed the wipers.

 

All in all, I guess if you're going in April, be prepared for that nice wet cascade snow. Maybe it was because we were at 3500ft only for the majority of the day, (4700ft snow was better, but still calve deep) but even skinning up seems like it would be miserable.

 

Oh, thought you might like a parting shot of our wiper fix.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Ice Axe, helmet, crampons, rope, prusiks, snowshoes... In reality, only snowshoes and prusiks were used...and the prusiks were to "fix" the wipers so we could manually utilize them on the way home. Think puppeteers.

Edited May 2, 2007 by burglar

[dan_forester]

 

Oh, thought you might like a parting shot of our wiper fix.

 

 

hilarious!

[jhamaker]

Wiper fix. I'd call "*not* shotgun"

[skitchmo]

Atta boy, if Hillary and Tenzing had turned back 'cause of a few minor adversities they would have been but a historical footnote. Keep up the strong work...

[Chad_A]

Nice try; other would have saved their gas cash and stayed home

[Dan_Miller]

Don't forget, it is all about suffering anyway. It seems you fulfilled the goal after all.

[tyree]

Nice try, you should give it another chance when its a little drier because it is a beautiful route that can be done C2C with an early start.

BTW its "Swift Creek" not the "Nooksack River" that had the snow bridges. You drove over the Nooksack that on MBHwy just past the DOT.

[olyclimber]

Nice...way to keep at it. At least you didn't need to rent a camel or something to continue on. Next time...

[letsroll]

lol nice report. Have had a few of those trips myself. Isn't climbing fun......

 

Keep up the work. Bag it next time.

[burglar]

Nice try, you should give it another chance when its a little drier because it is a beautiful route that can be done C2C with an early start.

BTW its "Swift Creek" not the "Nooksack River" that had the snow bridges. You drove over the Nooksack that on MBHwy just past the DOT.

 

Ahhh yes, you're right. Remembered the the wrong name. Thanks. We will hopefully try it again towards the early summer months. Seems like a great route and I'm eager to try out the Lake Ann trail sans snow. Beautiful valley to be hiking in regardless.

[glm]

I second that you should give it a try later in the season. The chimneys themselves would be interesting in snow, from what I remember. The valley to Lake Anne is pretty, but that last mile back up to the lot can be a long one after an impromptu bivy on rock the night before with the rain just starting (but that's another Shuksan story...).

It's a great route, lots of variety, beautiful views. Just watching the Curtis Glacier calve ice blocks down the cliff is worth the trip.