Mt Shuksan via Sulphide Glacier
Words and photos by Dave Shuey.
26 May 2019
I’ve read that Shuksan is the most photographed mountain in North America. Now I don’t know about that, but it is pretty damn impressive to the eye. The 9127 ft peak lives in the shadow of the larger Mt Baker, yet its classically jagged skyline, built from rocky towers and ridgelines, brings about an appeal that its neighbor lacks. The North Cascades NP boundary even extends westward just enough to include the mountain within the park’s jurisdiction. The Fisher Chimneys route, the peak’s most popular, was still out of condition for the season, so we chose a more straightforward glacier climb via the Sulphide glacier.
A slightly anxious mood was set early on, when Patrick and I arrived to the Shannon Ridge trailhead to find not a single other vehicle parked. On the Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend even. Now perhaps the rainy weather of the day had kept the masses at bay, but Sunday’s forecast was looking favorable, and I was still fairly shocked to find the parking area empty. As I bedded down, two ladies arrived to the lot and it appeared we’d at least not be the only ones making an attempt.
The 2am alarm came surprisingly easy, and with coffee and a chuck of baguette down the hatch, we headed off into the darkness on a clear dirt trail. The all-holy Beckey guide stated that the initial approach to a 5500 ft col was to take five hours, and although I found that hard to believe, I was just fine with our arrival to this spot at the edge of the glacier in just 2.5 hours. There was clear usable light in the wee hours prior to 5am, which was great for navigating, but less comforting as we could see ominous dark clouds moving at us from the southeast. As the wind gusted and knocked us around a bit, it was clear the the forecast, even from three different sources/models, was not how the morning would play out. Fair enough though, we continued up the deeply snow covered glacier.
Without a crevasse anywhere near our chosen path, we chose to continue unroped for the time savings it would allow. Patrick motored up the slushy slope with the speed of a man possessed and I did everything in my power to try and keep up. I was thankful for his trail breaking and used his foot deep steps to preserve some effort and find a good rhythm.
We made great time up the rolling and sometimes steeper slopes, until we stood beside the Hells Highway couloir that drops west towards the Fisher Chimneys. Here the clouds were fully engulfing us, and we chose to rope up for fear of missing something lurking beyond with the poor visibility. As it would have play out, there were no holes to navigate around this day, and we’d end up descending the whole glacier unroped later. But first, some alpine trickery was to be had.
The summit pyramid is a ~700 ft tower of rock topping off a climb from any route. During the summer, once the snow has melted off, it can go anywhere from 3rd class to low 5th, depending on your chosen line. This day however, it would go at unconsolidated faceted snow and chossy rock for the effort. We unroped and battled up this slope, using pressure from both foot and knee for each step, otherwise the wait of a fully weighted foot upon stepping up would crush the snow and create a body-sized posthole. The slope steepened twice, and we debated pitching out the final section, but decided in the interest of time to just gun for the top. Negotiating some awkward rock moves from weird snow firmness to rock proved the most challenging of the maneuvers required, but we found ourselves on the highest bump of snow and had completed the route car-to-summit in just under 7.5 hours, with a distance of 6.5 mi and an elevation gain of 6700 ft.
The final moves exiting the couloir via rock were not high on my wish list to down climb off the summit, so I was thrilled to discover a slung block just below that I backed up with some cord and we made the first of what would be four rappels down the pyramid with our 60m rope. We continued off the tower via facing out plunge stepping, trying to avoid a couple moats created by the warming rock beneath the snow surface. Content to reach the base of the pyramid and onto the relative firmness of the glacier, we ate some snacks, sipped some water, adjusted layers from the chilly rappels, and plowed down the glacier towards the Shannon Ridge. The IT band on my right knee was screaming like a banshee just a short ways down, and I had to be extra careful in how I placed my footfalls in the slushy snow to keep the pain to a minimum. The pine needle covered trail far below was a welcome relief for my knee and we made our way back to the cars, debating countless topics to keep the mood light on our fatigued minds. A long day for sure, but a good test in perseverance on a full-featured, in-a-day ascent.
The Sulphide glacier took us 7:30h to reach the summit, and 13:30h car-to-car for the ~13 mi rt, 6700 ft climb.
