[TR] Mt. Shuksan - White Salmon Glacier 2/20/2010

[TRbetaFlash]

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - White Salmon Glacier

 

Date: 2/20/2010

 

Trip Report:

Yay. I threw my camera in the creek.

 

[video:vimeo]9637482

 

We decided to launch a casual 1-day attack on the White Salmon Glacier this last weekend. Conditions on the glacier were favorable for skinning up and shredding down. Avy danger was very low since it seemed the previous storm's snow had firmed up and what was heavy and dangerous had already slid off. We saw about 6 other parties just absolutely gang-banging the whole mountain.

 

The approach down from the bottom of chair 8 is mostly snow, but the sections in the tight trees are either steep snow-free moss surfing or *mandatory* crampon dirty rotten snow. This was taken on the hike out what other approach beta calls 'the clearcut'.

As you round the large rock outcropping at the very base of the mountain (where N. face climbers go left), we looked up right to this.

 

We got to the top of the white salmon glacier and contemplated going a little further to shred winnie's slide, but the sun and views were insane. We plopped down and ate lunch, snapping our boards back together. Surprisingly, that face on the South side of Shuksan that you can see from fisher chimneys hadn't slid that much. The chimneys were falling apart and there was exposed rock all over the place. There was a very recent boot pack up it.

 

Baker was all pretty, as usual.

 

We dropped in from the spot where the chimneys top out. We had the entire (skier's right) side of the white salmon glacer to ourselves.

 

It seems like the snow on the Northern side of Shuksan is superior to the conditions around the rest of the ski area and surrounding mountains. At least that's what we were hearing from people out there Saturday outside the ski area.

 

A couple thousand feet of freshies.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Aluminum crampons were more useful for the trees than the glacier!

 

Approach Notes:

Drop straight from the top of the clear cut for the approach. Coming back, the clearcut is pretty brutal, so you might want to go left toward the arm and follow tracks up there to about 3,700 feet and traverse back to the top of the clearcut.

[bigeo]

Great pics and video. We did the same tour on Sunday and had the W. Salmon all to ourselves. Started with the ambition of summiting, but after losing an hour plus to veering too far skiers' right in the "clear cut" (stay left, its wanded and flagged)and more time to slow skinning on the lower W. Salmon, we settled for the top the glacier. The ski down was on variable soft slab; very turn-able but occasionally "grabby". Looks like snowboards were the tool of choice, but the skiing was good. Apparently better than many other places that people toured this weekend. Snowpack showed no signs of instability.

[TRbetaFlash]

Good to hear you got out there too! How about that avy debris that came down from the arm a while back? That was pretty intense. Did you notice what those flags said on the wands? I saw "korean climber" on them. All I could think about was some guy who saw shuksan on a postcard in Korea who set out to fly over here and climb it. In those trees, we were totally lost, front-pointing on moss and rocks. ahhh!

[bigeo]

I would like to have watched those slides in the valley come down--from a safe distance. What an amazing amount of debris! I had tried to climb Shuksan via the W Salmon in July a few years ago and did epic battle with the cliffs and ravines getting into the valley. This time, when I realized I was off track, I booted back up 300-400'to the ski area and started over. So, by the time I found the flagged route, I was trying to make up time and didn't look that closely. Did notice that those were some might fancy "wands" near the top. Must have been a Korean with resources.

[Roscoe_M]

Funny thing about clearcuts in the northwet...they soon turn into forests.