[TR] Mt. Shuksan - Fisher Chimneys 7/3/2010

[Tucker]

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - Fisher Chimneys

 

Date: 7/3/2010

 

Trip Report:

Ian Nicholson and I climbed the Fisher Chimneys July 3-5. The trip was awesome, the conditions were not so awesome. The hike in on the 3rd was through a light mist and very low visibility...the first step of the chimneys was mostly covered with steep snow, although you can get off the snown and do some scrambling on the right side. The "football field" campground below the upper chimneys was completely snow covered, bring your shovel because digging our platform with our ice axes was...well...fun.

 

On the 4th we were up and out of the tent at 5:00 AM, greated by another bout of wind, mist and low visibility. The upper fisher chimneys looks like this (picture taken on July 3rd during a weather break)...

 

 

As the picture shows, the climb up the upper chimneys is a selection between steep snow or attempting to stick to the rock band on the left side...we opted for as much rock as possible, only having to hop onto the snow in a few places.

 

Winnie's slide and Hell's Highway were both easily climbed...both could likely be climbed without crampons although the leader (Ian) did use crampons on the last couple of short pitches of Hell's Highway for better traction while kicking in steps.

 

The summit pyramid was covered in snow, even the summit itself was completely covered in snow...lots of steep snow climbing mixed with some rock here or there...all steep snow lowering and downclimbing on the way back down the pyramid and most of the chimneys.

 

On the 5th we had the fun hike out in more wind, mist and low visibility...the sun finally peaked out as we neared the car.

 

Fun times, fun route and a great bunch of folks to climb with (hey and congrats to the others that were on the route and summitted the same day!)

 

* If you're interested in more route beta or pictures send me a message and I will share what I have.

 

Gear Notes:

Standard apline rack, minimal rock gear given the chimneys and pyramid have a good amount of snow still on them.

 

Approach Notes:

The road was gated at the lower parking lot...but the rangers mentioned it would be plowed to the upper parking lot the week of July 5th (son of a...)

[Climb Enthusiast]

Sounds like a good trip. Thinking of heading up there and curious as to if you could give me an idea of how steep the steep snow slopes are degree wise. 40, 45, 50, 55 - steeper?

 

Thanks!

[Tucker]

I'm not that great at guessing the slope angle, but based on previous climbs of Baker and an attempt on the Kautz route of Rainier I would say between 40 and 50 degrees. Here are a couple of pics coming up the route so others can help estimate the angle.

 

 

Those are pretty much the only enroute pictures that show the angles due to the weather challenges. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the few places where it was the steepest (Winnie's and Hell's Highway not included).

[SGPeas]

Tucker - my group is planning an attempt this weekend. We have heard that finding the correct gully in the chimneys is difficult, and moreso when snow-covered. Any beta you can share on finding the correct gully/chimney would be much appreciated.

 

Also, was their any difficulty in downclimbing the chimneys with the snow/rock combination?

 

Thanks much,

Brian

[kurthicks]

go up the one with the huge spraypainted arrow pointing towards it. seriously.

[genepires]

follow the tracks in the snow to the start?

 

The yellow arrow may be under snow, maybe not.

[Tucker]

Unfortunately with the snow level last weekend the spray painted arrow was nowhere to be found...but there was one set of faint footprints we followed. I had personally never climbed them, but Ian had a few times so that obviously helped. I wasn't able to get any pictures of the approach into the chimney's to point them out to you but my bet with the weather this week is that there will likely be several sets of new tracks to follow...

 

Regarding the descent...with all the snow cover we actually messed up and downclimbed into the wrong gulley on the way down, we had to climb back up and over into the proper gulley. There is enough of the regular rock scramble route showing to help guide you on the way back down if you just pay attention and look for it...Ian also made a good amount of new cairns to help guide folks that should make it more obvious on the descent.

Edited July 8, 2010 by Tucker

[Mr_Christian]

We are planning on heading up the Sulphide route on July 17-18, and I am wondering if you can tell me how the glacier was looking once you were up on it? Also, can you provide any more details on the summit pyramid conditions? Did you just scramble the 'standard' route still even with the snow cover? Did the snow seem relatively stable? Thanks ahead of time for the info!

[Tucker]

Once we were on the sulphide it was quite firm, we busted out crampons for the upper part of the sulphide and for the summit pyramid. The pyramid was mostly steep snow climbing for us, the snow was stable enough. With all this warm weather the conditions are likely going to be changing considerably over the next 2 weeks where you'll get more rock on the pyramid, we had very little rock srambling and mostly just shot straight up the snow to the top with a few rock moves here or there.

[Mr_Christian]

Thanks Tucker. We will post a report on the route conditions after the climb this weekend.

[SGPeas]

After a trip this past weekend (July 10-11), the conditions are still largely the same as Tucker described, especially in the upper chimneys. The last part of the snow on this section can now be easily avoided by working on the rock and moat on the left. We saw others still choosing to downclimb on snow from the top. Some large holes are starting to develop on the snow around mid-way, though. The first step of the lower chimneys is largely melted out and requires climbing up with running water on parts of the rock; we rapped down that section on the descent.

 

Snow conditions were still soft on Winnie's Slide, Hell's Highway and the summit pyramid. On the first two, there are now solid, deep steps kicked in this snow, making for relatively easy travel. We did a running belay, but only on the descent. On the summit pyramid, some of the chutes are partly melted down to rock. We ascended on the SE ridge and descended the snow chutes, using the occasional picket and rock protection where possible.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

Nice! This is/was one of my favorite climbs!