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| photo | Chris |
The following morning we woke up at 4am for breakfast-in-bed, and started up the ridge at 6am. A quick "good morning" with our neighbors, who turned out to have climbed the Hourglass and SW Ridge on the summit pyramid while we were skinning up the day before. The final slope to the Curtis Glacier required kicking in a boot pack, so we just kept the skis on our packs and booted across and up Hell's Highway to the Sulphide Glacier instead of putting the boards back on.
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| photo | Chris |
On the Sulphide, the view of the summit pyramid shocked me. I counted 23 people coming and going between us and the top. I've never seen so many folks there before. By the time we reached the summit, it looked a lot more reasonable, with only two teams from Mountain Madness ahead of us. We climbed half-way up before putting on the rope, then continued on a little slower but feeling more secure. The view from the summit was stellar, as always.
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| photo | Chris |
The ski down the Sulphide Glacier and Hell's Highway was smooth - the crust had just softened up enough to make for great turns. A little skin jog up the Curtis Glacier and then we skied the steps and benches down to our bivy spot. The freezing level must have only reached about 6500', because the snow turned into the thick, heavy, wet mashed potatoes that would slough and slide on the steeper slopes. These slides quickly caught up more snow and mass and really start charging down the slope, but they left a track that was easier to ski in. So we found a rhythm after all - I would ski-cut a descending traverse across a likely looking slope, kicking off a slide and creating a groomed track before skiing down to a safe waiting spot. Then the crew would come behind me, usually one at time. We inched our way down in incremental steps this way, finally finding the valley floor. All the debris made for some serious survival skiing, but we made it across the basin alright and reached the clear cut.
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| photo | Chris |
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| photo | Chris |
I had optimistically hoped that we'd be able to find a skin-worthy route up the climber's right side of the cut, but it proved not to be, and we had to give up and boot 300' back up the cut before we could continue skinning again. We were too tired to be relieved when we reached the top of the clear-cut, and took the skins off one last time for the final 15 minute slide back to the parking lot. Pizza's and beers were waiting for us at the Beer Shrine!
Statistics: 3-4 June, Pro Guiding Service, Mt Shuksan Private Trip. Mt Shuksan (9131 ft) via the White Salmon Glacier. 20km round trip, 7130 feet climbed and skied.
Photos | All photos are used with permission from Doug Bieghle, except where noted. Thanks Doug!
