danhelmstadter Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 Trip: Shuksan - North Face -- BYS direct Date: 2/7/2010 Trip Report: Picture taken On clear afternoon of a differant day... I woke up determined to ski the North Face, I had packed and prepared the night before, but the weather was not looking good... Clouds, of various kinds loomed darkly overhead as I sipped coffe outside the Glacier Ski Shop, there was quite a hustle and bustle as the infamous Banked Slalom was underway... I asked the guy at the coffe shop if he knew what the forecast was calling for -- he said he didn't but he could find out with a call(thanks!)... high overcast and no snow is what he said. Sweet, sounds reasonable for the nf... I left the parking lot around 9am, The skin track up to the BYS variation entrance was still there, but the boot pack had disappeared overnight... Clouds steadily built - darkened, and approached, if worst came to worst - I could just downclimb my track. Tempratures were a lot warmer than the previous day. This - I thought - helped to relax some of the tension in the shallow surface slab that was the theme on much of the route.. Clouds rolled in enfulfing me and the face in fog. Occasional breaks in the clouds gave me hope as I neared the top of the face. I skiined up to the north shoulder in a foggy white out, buckled my boots and got ready to drop at a moments notice -- in anticipation of a much hoped for break in the clouds. It came, I dropped, skiing happily in the narrow clear window. There was a little ice crust at the very top, then a little pow, then mostly windslabby affected snow. It was cool to ski to loud reggae music -- that echoed up from the party at the ski resort many thousands of feet below. As I gained the entrance to the BYS couloir the weather window closed as the clouds once again engulfed the mountain. I waited for about half an hour and thankfully the clouds cleared for a few minutes. The couloir was very fun skiing, especially the steep exit through the rock band at the bottom. There were no more weather windows that afternoon, thick clouds rolled in and drizzled on me as I made my way back to the parking lot. top of face lookin down view tracks entance couloir random Quote
Pete_H Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 Shit Dan, how many times is that skiing Shuksan this season? Bad Ass! Quote
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