Mt. Shuksan, White Salmon Glacier

Mt. Shuksan is one of the iconic ski mountains.  On a clear day, it just sort of taunts you from the Mt. Baker Ski Area.  For those who don't know, the ski area actually exists on the edge of the Shuksan Arm - much more intimately attached to Shuksan than Baker.  Anyway, the view from the ski area on a clear day is impressive: the complex North Face and Hanging Glacier host numerous hardman ski routes.  It is simply a beautiful mountain.  For me, it was another mountain that deserved patience and preparation.  Specifically, I needed to wait until I was ready to ski it.  Sure.  I could have climbed it on foot years ago.  But I wanted to ski it.  I got my backcountry setup two years ago.  And since that time, I have been holding out hope that weather, snow conditions, time off, and partners would align.  They finally did.

The North Face of Shuksan and the Hanging Glacier

 This past year I have reached out through Cascade Climbers to find partners for alpine rock, cragging, and ice.  I still don't have enough ski partners.  So this was my first trip with random partners through Turns All Year.  It worked out, sortof.  Both guys were competent in terms of snow safety, gear, fitness.  Johnny was a very experienced skier.  Fletcher was a splitboarder with a lot of peakbagging experience and a lot of mellow touring, but not much big mountain time.  He struggled a bit in ski mode, especially crossing gullies, avy debris, and the like.  At one point not far into the trip, he came really close to heading back to the car, and we almost let him.  I'd say that all in all, his presence on the trip probably added 2-3 hours to my car-to-car time.  Oh well.

The day was a bit of a mini-epic.  It all started out when we decided to approach Shuksan from the South side, via Baker Lake at the Shannon Creek TH.  I had no beta in books or online about the White Salmon Route, which is the route that gets the most play in the Winter.  That was the main reason we chose the easier Sulphide Glacier route.  Bad choice.  We met up at the Chuckanut Park and Ride at 3:45 am.  We made the drive to Baker Lake, but promptly got shut down by blowdown on the road to the Shannon Creek Trailhead.  We actually cleared one log by sawing through it with my snow saw.  Only to find a whole series of other logs 100 feet further.  We were still 4 miles from the TH.  Rather than pull the plug completely, after much debate, we decided to drive all the way around to the White Salmon side.  We would just see how far the weather and snow would let us get, and enjoy whatever turns we got.  It was a good decision.  We finally embarked from the Mt. Baker Ski Area parking lot at 8:30 am.  Nobody really knew the beta for the route, but you could pretty much see it from the parking lot.  We made a rising traverse on a cat track below the ski area, and then dropped down to the base of the White Salmon and Hanging Glaciers.

It was a bit tedious crossing avy debris and gullies.  This was where Fletcher almost threw in the towel.  Johnny and I spent about an hour waiting for him to catch up.  But once we hit the skin track heading up the White Salmon Glacier, everything seemed to hit cruise control.  It was awesome being so close to the unforgettable North Face of Shuksan with its Hanging Glacier.  We saw a big bus-sized serac calve off and come rushing down the face right next to us, which was exciting.  We kept moving, as the White Salmon actually held some sweet-looking wind-packed powder in the shady areas and the skiing looked great.  We ended up making great time, climbing 3500 feet in 2 hours, and were now at the top of the Shuksan Arm looking at the Upper Curtis Glacier around noon.


White Salmon Glacier

Upper Curtis Glacier and the Summit Pyramid

Shuksan Arm and Mt. Baker

Upper Curtis Glacier

 From there we began to really bake as we headed into the parabolic curve across the Upper Curtis toward Hell's Highway.  But by now, we were thinking summit.

Hell's Highway

 After booting up the last steep bit of Hell's Highway, we hit the broad shoulder of the Sulphide Glacier, and could see the summit pyramid looming close.

Hell's Highway, Sulphide Glacier, Summit Pyramid

It was easy going up the mellow slope of the Sulphide, and soon we were taking off skis and getting ready to boot up to the summit.

Sulphide Glacier

Summit Pyramid

Sulphide Glacier and Baker Lake

 I wrestled with the issue of whether or not to take my skis to the summit.  While it would have been sweet in terms of bragging rights to be able to say I skied off the summit, it didn't look very good the closer we got.  The slope angle wasn't too intimidating.  But the snow was deeply runneled, and looked quite crappy.  Johnny ended up taking his, and Fletcher and I left ours at the base of the pyramid.  He was happy skiing it, but I was very happy personally to have left mine.  The snow was rotten, aerated, deeply runneled, and just not very inviting.  Johnny made jump turns down, with a fair amount of side-slipping in between.  He made it, but didn't make me wish I was skiing it with him.

Beta note: at the top of the funnel, go left to get onto the shoulder leading to the true summit.  Johnny and Fletcher got themselves into a sketchy spot with some crazy exposure and had to downclimb a bit before rejoining me on the correct path.

Johnny and Fletcher booting up the wrong gully on the summit pyramid

 The views from the true summit were spectacular.  This was the Northernmost peak in the Cascades that I've climbed.  So there were a ton of mountains around there that I didn't recognize.  A lot off rugged terrain and mountains that are hard to get to.

Sulphide Glacier and Baker Lake from the summmit

Me on the summit

 It was also crazy to be able to look straight down the North Face, and see the parking lot way off in the distance.  We had a lot of skiing in our near future!


Relief from the summit to the bottom of the White Salmon

The ski out was spectacular!  Much, much, MUCH better than expected.  Creamy, but fast corn awaited on the Sulphide Glacier, which was over in a blur.  Styrofoam and powder along Hell's Highway.  The a brief skin up and across the Upper Curtis Glacier.  More killer corn down the Upper Curtis to the top of the White Salmon.  Then more styrofoam, short bits of powder, and some wetter corn on the White Salmon.  It was over too soon.  We had descended 6000 feet on skis, and I wanted it to keep going!

Finally, the long slog back across the avy debris, gullies, and back up to the ski area.  Again, waiting at least an hour for Fletcher.  Back to the car around 7pm.  So, not too too bad, considering interesting start to our day and late car departure.  What a day.  Glad I waited to ski it.  And I'm glad we ended up skiing the more interesting route.