[TR] Mt. Shuksan - North Face 5/31/2008

[Waydough]

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - North Face

 

Date: 5/31/2008

 

Trip Report:

Mt. Shuksan – North Face

 

Steve Trent (“Trent”), Scott Bingen and I climbed this route on Friday, May 31, 2008. We really got lucky on the conditions for this wonderful, challenging route. The weather was beautiful! It’s a route worth building up to in your North Cascades alpine climbing dream list. The north face is long, steep, and committing; however the rest of the climbing and descending for the day is regular snow, glacier, and gully crossing stuff. Lot’s of trip reports can be found on the internet and lots have been written up in climbing route books, so it’s not necessary to go into the route details

 

We left the car at 1:50 am and skied from the White Salmon (lower) ski lodge to the base of chair 8 and then put the skis on our packs for the traverse through the forest. Three hours of hiking and skiing later and were at the base of the north face. About half of this part of the ascent was done on skis. There is a huge avalanche debris pile less than two weeks old that we skirted below on the way to the col below the north face. The north face was mostly firm snow and there was no avalanche or slide activity the entire time we were on it. The north face took us about 4 hours, but took Steve and Scott about 3. After summiting we descended on skis from the base of the summit pyramid at 8600’ across the Sulphide Glacier, and then down the White Salmon Glacier and lower snow fields to 3600’ on excellent corn snow.

 

I was a little sketched-out and tired after about half the north face part of the climb. Feeling less stable on crampon front points than them, I kicked deep, bomber foot buckets into their shallow marks all the way up the route. This took much more time and energy for me. I was physically spent and just thought about hanging in there, made sure I religiously kept 3 points of contact with terra-firma, and went at the pace I hoped I could keep up without cramping or collapsing. For this route you need to expect to solo pretty much the whole thing to save time and energy as well as to stay safe (there may be snow/ice that releases far above you that can windshield-wiper you off the face quickly). I cannot imagine spending more time than we did on the route to belay multiple pitches. The north face is about 2500 feet of 40-60 degree snow/ice climbing, but the majority of the route is about 50 degrees. There is no way to arrest your fall with your ice axe once on the face. The name of the game is to hold on to your tools, keep your energy up, and be efficient!

 

The standard summit route on the south face of the upper pyramid (top 600’ of the peak) spooked me a bit also. The snow was thin and rotten from recent rain and sun melt. Steve belayed me a couple of pitches and on the descent I rappelled the top 400’. We made the summit at 1:00 pm and had the mountain to ourselves with the exception of a team of two that had crossed the Sulfide Glacier and were about an hour behind us.

 

Skiing down 5000 vertical feet on the Sulfide Glacier, White Salmon Glacier, and lower snowfields after such a great climb was icing on the peak. We skied corn snow and had no major problems all the way down to 3600 feet where the traverse back to the lower lodge begins. Sure, we could have saved a few pounds and had better climbing boots for the route if we did not bring ski gear, but the small amount of extra effort was worth it ten-times-over to ski down. We were back at the car drinking beer at 5:40 pm.

 

Gear notes: Day packs, skis, crampons, two ice tools (one standard axe would be ok); one 40 meter rope used on the summit pyramid for two pitches up and 3 raps down; brought 4 liters of water each and needed 5 for the day (we found a water drip on the summit pyramid); lots of easy to consume snacks like Gu and energy bars; one picket each, crevasse rescue gear, headlamps; emergency bivy gear

 

Recommendations: Choose good, capable, fun companions because you may need to depend on their good humor, ability to suffer, and desire to keep going up; brings skis and do it in a day or else go overnight with very light gear and camp at the col next to the north face; start the north face climbing at daybreak with at least 6 servings of food and two litters drink that you can access without removing your pack (we found a ledge about 1/3 the way up to take a break, but don’t expect this); be a comfortable and efficient steep-snow/ice climber before embarking on this adventure; take lots of photos; expect the trip to take longer than you think it should!

 

Trent posted a few of the photos and I'll try to figure out how to post some also

 

~Wade

 

 

[Trent]

A few pics:

 

 

 

 

[DirtyHarry]

Why didn't you guys ski the north face?

[Waydough]

I knew someone would ask that. I don't ski things that take two tools to ascend. That's for really good skiers, not our party.

 

The White Salmon was so good to ski that I'll never recommend the Sulfide approach/descent to anyone again (climber or skier).

[Lisa_D]

awesome. you guys really got the weather window!

[Old Guy]

I am not familiar with the route. If you are skiing down the Sulphide Glacier how did you get over to the White Salmon Glacier?

 

[Trent]

To get to White Salmon Basin from the summit pyramid, one must first descend the Sulphide Glacier for a couple of hundred feet to a feature on the right known as Hells Highway. (See photo below.) Hells Highway is incorrectly labeled "The Hourglass" on the USGS map. (See F. Beckey, CAG III 2nd Ed. pages 66-67.) Hells Highway is basically a steep snow slope that will allow access to the Upper Curtis Glacier, which can be descended via a falling traverse to the White Salmon Glacier. The White Salmon Glacier can be decsended directly to White Salmon Creek, and the ski area. We were lucky with the snow cover, and did not have to remove our skis once on the descent.

 

Hells Highway.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

In other words, you start down the top part of the Fischer Chimney's route (Hell's Hwy, Upper Curtis, plus Winnie's slide).

 

And yes, the USGS quad is totally fucked up and mislabeled.

 

[cfire]

Nice work Wade and Steve. Good to see you at the Beer Shrine. We did the north face the weekend before and postholed up to our knees the whole way in mashed potato's...brutal going...but the approach sure was nice covered in snow.

[jport]

Sweet! Didn't have to take your skis off?!?!?... I'm jealous.

[Waydough]

Hey cfire: Your footsteps looked like splash zones on the snow and were only about 2 inches deep by the time we saw them above the north face. You saw us at the Beer Shrine? Where were you seated? Go back and climb it when the snow is hard!

[JoshK]

How would the White Salmon be for ascending as well? I like the idea of skis on at car, skis off at car and no forests, booting, etc... :-) I'm sure it's slogarific but are there major isues with shrunds, bridges, etc?