Conditions on Shuksan (North Face)

[sparverius]

Does anyone know the recent conditions on the north face of shuksan and on the approach via white salmon creek? I'm guessing that there isn't enough snow to cover the brush.

 

[fenderfour]

I was tooling around at Baker on Sunday. There isn't quite enough snow to cover the bushes. I don't know what the conditions on the face might be.

[sparverius]

How were the conditions on Baker? Decent enough for skiing above tree-line?

[matopis]

ok, if you don't actually know the conditions feel free to speculate as well!

[fenderfour]

Skiing on the glaciers is viable. Not great everywhere else.

 

Skiing at the Baker ski area was doable right out of the car.

 

If I were to speculate on the conditions of hte North Face, I would say "ok". there was a lot of wind deposited snow where we were skiing that wasn't consolidated. The steeper lines in the area still looked pretty bare, which would mean good cramponing conditions up the Nordwand. My main concern would be snow coming off the upper mountain. I don't know much about avalanches, so I tend to be more conservative about these things.

[sparverius]

thanks for the update. Call me soft, but I think we'll save that climb for spring, when we can ski over the brush.

[G-spotter]

there's a dump of new snow from monday.