[TR] Shuksan - N Face 7/29/2010

[NTM]

Trip: Shuksan - N Face

 

Date: 7/29/2010

 

Trip Report:

BDK and I did the N Face route on Wed July 28.

We left the car at the White Salmon gate and headed down the gravel road. The bushwacking descent was awesome! Lots of steepness, kind of a chose-your-own-adventure type thing. My only reccomendation is to not cross any streams; stay on the ski area side of things. Crossing the White Salmon river was alright, but heading back uphill was rough. We kept hitting near dead-ends and barely finding a way up through it all, tons of tree pulling. About 4.5 hrs car to camp on the ridge just below the face.

We got up at 4a and were moving by 4:20. It never really got that cold so the lower face was still quite soft. We moved fairly quickly around the crevasses and gained the finger of snow that leads to the upper face. If it stays this warm, there wont be much left of it. Conditions were fantastic on the upper face. We stayed left of a big rock in the middle of the face then went back to the right to avoid a large berschrundy-type thing, then cut back left near the top. About 3 hrs camp to the top-out.

Another hour of hiking brought us to the base of the summit. I opted for a nap in the sun while bdk soloed up to tag the summit.

We decided to take the fischer chimney descent. down hell's highway (great condition), onto the upper curtis, around to winnies slide and down through the chimneys. We had kind of a hard time figuring out where all these parts were in relation to each other before we began, but it all makes sense when you do it.

The trail down the chimneys was easy to follow, but we were getting pretty worked by then, definitely stoked when we hit lake ann. But then we lost the trail and bushwacked some more for fun and found the trail again in the basin. The final climb out of the basin sucked. Luckily we were able to hitch a ride back to our car. 13 hrs camp to car.

Pizza at la fiamma in b-ham was awesome.

i think the hardest parts of this route are the approach and descent, the n face itself felt pretty cruiser and was awesome.

 

photos to come.

 

Gear Notes:

only used pickets, consider bringing at least 3 depending on your comfort level

 

Approach Notes:

go down then up, plan on swearing a lot.

[wbk]

Nice TR Jer. Was great climbing with you but even better being dorks in backcountry.

 

Here are some photos:

 

Bushwacking N Cascades style

 

North Face

 

Here's what the White Salmon is looking like

 

Jer crossing a deep runnel low on the route

 

Mid route - this bench provides a spot to chill (relaxed angle) but we pushed on due to the impending sun

 

 

 

My camera has a tendency not to open

 

Downclimbing Winnie's Slide

 

Finishing up the last Fisher Chimney to get back on the snow

 

 

[cman]

 

My camera has a tendency not to open

 

 

Nice job. I like this shot. It kind of has a eyelids half closed/tired early morning feel to it. Looks like it was a fun climb

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

how did Hell's Highway look? Still easy to downclimb and few crevasses?

[NTM]

yeah, it was all good.