Shuksan (Sulphide) road?

[timmy_t]

to whoever's been up the sulphide lately, how far up the road can you drive? anything else noteworthy?

 

thanks

 

[skjos]

Weather/conditions permitting, I'll be bringing my chainsaw next weekend, hopefully, I won't have to use it and the road is snow and tree free.

 

Trees I can handle, but I would like to know about the snow (if any).

[peas]

We walked from mile 2.5 on the Shannon Creek road on April 26 due to trees, but would have started at mile 3 if we brought a better saw. At that time, snow was patchy until ~0.5 miles to the trailhead and we had our skis on for the rest of the way (skinning across some bald spots here and there). I think that someone posted up some more recent conditions in the North Cascades section, but I couldn't find the post again. They got stopped by the same tree and had somewhat patchier snow. Sounds like the snow in the clear cut at the end of the road is going fast.

 

Have fun.

[skjos]

Thanks for the road update, are any of the downed trees super-huge, my 24" bar can get through most stuff, but super-big trees take awhile.

[timmy_t]

thanks guys,

maybe I'll give a little update when I get back on Sunday...

[peas]

I don't know what 24" bar means, but all we had was a 6" hand saw and we probably could have made it through all the trees given enough time and motivation. So if you have 24" of anything I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

 

[timmy_t]

Just climbed Shuksan via the Sulphide yesterday. You don't need a chainsaw of any kind; you need a snowplow. All downed trees that aren't buried by snow have been cut down. Anyway, you can drive to within about a 10-15 minute walk of the trailhead.

[skjos]

Sweet, thanks for the information.

 

How were snow conditions: Any post-holing, would you recommend snow shows, avalance conditions on the pyramid?

 

I'm looking to head up on the next weather window (this weekendish).

[timmy_t]

No postholing, because we had skis on. If you have a snowboard that isn't of the split variety, then snowshoes. Summit pyramid was fine, a ladder to the summit thanks to the nice big steps made by a Canadian climber in front of us. A little slippy on the traverse underneath the cliffs by the col (5500'?) on the way out, but that's it. Brother skied into a tree well in the clearcut section.