Successful summit of Shuksan on Labor Day weekend via Sulphide glacier. 

Day 1: Started around 2pm with our party of 4. About a 5 hour hike to camp, 5 miles, 4500ft. Beautiful views of Baker and Baker lake on the way up. About a mile from camp, the trail turns North and becomes a climber’s trail heading straight toward the glacier. We roped up for the last 20 minutes of hiking to high camp, and navigated around several medium-sized crevasses. We camped on the plateau at around 6400ft. We didn’t see the composting toilet at camp, but the map shows it on the ridge to Southwest. Only saw one other party of 2 camping on the ridge. 

Day 2: Started hiking at 2:45am. We were happy we started at this time both for more stable snow and avoiding the brutal heat later in the day. The first steep section of the Sulphide had many large crevasses and moats with waterfalls running underneath, but this section can easily be avoided by sticking to the climber’s left side below the rock rib. We started a bit too far left and had to traverse across a couple of rock islands.

The flat section of glacier above was easy walking with no visible crevasses and a clear bootpack to follow. We followed the ridge up the lefthand side close to the intersection with the Fischer chimneys route. Found a couple snow bridges to cross that were wide and holding up well. Near the summit pyramid there are some narrow cracks hidden beneath snow, and we punched through one of these waist deep. Otherwise the route is in great shape for this point in the season. 

Reached the summit pyramid and started climbing the gully around 6am as the sun was rising. This was a fun class 3 scramble with some interesting moves on solid rock. Be careful about knocking down loose rocks. It’s easy to get pulled too far right onto the SE ridge route, but if trying to follow the gully, stick to climber’s left. There are 2 options near the top to summit - a steeper gully on the right, or gaining the ridge on left and going around the summit block to the left. We were the first party on the summit at around 7:45am. Saw two more small parties on the way down, then a couple large, maybe guided, groups coming up around 11am. 

Spent about a half hour on the summit, then made 3 rappels, with some downclimbing in between, to the bottom of the gully. The first rap anchor is skier’s left, looking back toward the route, of the summit block. There were plenty of rap anchors and the ones on skier's right were in good condition with newer webbing, cord and rap rings. On the last section on the way down we found a path through the rocks on continuous snow, although some of the moats there will likely not hold up much longer. Back at camp at 12:30pm, then hiked out the same day.

Fun trip with a great group, no crowds, and interesting climbing! 

Epic C2C summit of Mount Shuksan with SoaringEagle and DaniilMag! This climb is in perfect condition right now and the views are spectacular. We were surprised how busy and clogged the summit pyramid was given the effort to get here. We must have encountered 30-50 other people going up and down at the same time. Seems like 70% of the people must have come up the Fischer Chimney route. 

Spent the night at Shannon Creek Campground, about 15 mins from Shannon Ridge TH and the closest spot we could find other than the TH itself. Woke up at 1:30am, hiking by 2:40am. Gravel road to TH is in decent condition, with occasional huge potholes. There were 6 other vehicles, still lots of room. Clean restroom. 

Trail is well defined up until past the meadows around 5000', but we did run into lots of patches of wet encroaching vegetation down lower. Given how warm it was going to be, the wetness wasn't an issue. Surprisingly, on our way out, someone had cleared the vegetation on the first 1/2 mile of the trail. The grade and quality of this trail is not bad when compared to something like Eldorado or Forbidden, so we made quick time. As we looped around the peak at 6000' into rocky terrain, patches of snow turned up and the trail was a bit harder to follow. Lots of cairns though. Snow quickly became consistent and eventually we put on our crampons for better grip. Given how warm it was overnight up there - 50s - the snow was decently firm for the ascent, which was nice. The snowfields and the glaciers are pretty chill, a bit of up and down and some flat sections. We made good time. We spotted 4 parties ahead of us. We roped up around 7800' as we headed into crevassed terrain. There's only 2 openings right now that you swing around on the path. The snow gets pretty steep as you approach the summit block. 

The 500' summit block warrants specific discussion, as that's where a lot of time can be spent and it's more difficult than the rest of the climb. We used a 6mm hpyerstatic glacier cord which was fine for crevasse falls and rappelling, but not useful for lead climbing. Our plan was to scramble (solo) the way up. We planned to start on the SE ridge and transition to the gully to the left if it became too sketchy. When we arrived there were two groups, possibly guided, just starting on the ridge. So rather than wait, we went slightly left of the ridge and picked a path up that worked. There were tricky moves here and there but we worked them out. For the final 150', we decided to split. Daniil went up onto the ridge, SoaringEagle and I dropped over to the standard gully scramble. To get to the gully, we had to execute a few tricky exposed moves, so not sure it was any easier than the ridge. There were 2 other groups on the gully ahead of us. We hit the summit at 9:20am, pleased with our overall speed to get here from the car. We took a 20 min break for photos and snacks and drinks, and chatted with 2 other groups on top. We could see more and more people coming up and decided to get moving. We decided to rappel the slings to the climbers left of the gully, which was recommended in a recent post by the rangers. Lots of groups seemed to be down climbing with support and we wanted to not have to wait on them or drop rocks on them. A guide or experienced person would belay and short rope any tricky sections, in between scrambling. We did four 60m rope rappels to get down to a flat spot before the final steep sketchy snow field in the gully. It was a bit slow going as rappels can be, and we had to be mindful of parties below and beside us. Surprisingly 3 of the rappel anchors only had one piece of webbing, so we ended up adding cord to each of them. Some people were rappelling down the snow, but we decided to just down climb with crampons and axe. It was steep and there was a hollow part at the bottom that had to be avoided. We witnessed 2 people having mild falls near the bottom. From here we had to scramble down a few more rock sections, before we transitioned back to snow and crampons. Getting down the summit block ended up taking a good 2 hours. Be wary of rockfall on the summit block. Lots of loose stuff. 

The hike out was of course a long slog and by this point it was getting super hot and there's really no shade to be had until you return to the last 3 miles in the trees. The snow travel seemed a lot longer on the way out! Anyway, we got back to the car at 4pm, sticky from all the sunscreen and sweat and tired but satisfied with the day! Hit up Double Barrel BBQ in Sedro-Wooley for some tasty burgers. Highly recommend this place, we always stop here when climbing in the Baker area. 

Stats: 14.4 miles, 6700' gain, 13:20 total time, 4:50 stopped time - a lot of which would be rappelling, route finding on the summit block, and gear changes. 

Gear: Full crevasse rescue setup, helmet, ice axe, poles. To save weight, I opted to wear my gore-tex TX4 hiking boots and strapped Camp aluminum crampons. Worked fine for both snow, hiking, and steep scrambling. Carried 2.7L of water. Filtered another 2L on the way out. Good glasses and sun screen for the snow travel. Sun hoodie to cover up. Headlamps for the hiking in the dark. 

Water sources: a few streams on the lower trail and a number of runoffs in the beginning of the snow fields around 6000'. Nothing near the trail after that. 

GPX: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2593775

***FOUND ICE AXE AND SANDALS***
Ice axe found between Curtis Glacier and Lake Anne. If you can describe it, it's yours.

Sandals found between lake Anne and Trailhead. Again, describe them and they're yours.

David
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Road/TH:

Highway 20 & Baker Lake road are in good condition, baker lake road turns into gravel but still good condition. Road up to the shannon ridge TH has some potholes and rough parts but nothing too terrible but something to be aware of. We got to the TH at like 7:30 pm and camped in the back of the car.

Shannon Ridge Trail:

Our intention was to c2c Shuksan via the sulphide glacier route. We started at 1 am from the TH. The trail is easy to follow for the first 3+ ish miles. It gets tougher for a minute as little cat trails go to campsites. It was easy to navigate on the way down in the light but being in a cloud & dark was difficult. Some brush here and there on the trail but nothing bad being in shorts meant some stinging needle :( We made it up to the edge of the glacier where we decided to stop and wait to see if this cloud would pass... it would come in and out but never fully went away. We decided to call it as the three of us weren't super comfortable with navigating the glacier through a whiteout. Then we moved back down to the TH. Another group was coming up as we went down but never saw any sign of the other 5 cars at the parking lot not even in the register.

Summary:

It ended up being an enjoyable day with two new friends. Would've loved to summit but between just meeting each other & all 18 or below there was no reason to try and risk anything. So I can't report on the shape of the glacier but people are climbing this route pretty frequently according to the trail register. 

The Trial up to the saddle is a disaster! Many blowdowns, debris all over the trail, I could go on.... but, it is not impassable, just adds a bit more to the hike in and a lot to my sore legs hiking out.  To fix the trail they will probably need to reroute some sections because of the massive erosion in some areas. Once you get to the park boundary, the trial is just fine (same as always).

The snow is intermittent past the saddle to where it rounds the knoll and heads up to the lower camp/toilet.  At that point, it is all snow.  

The snow was soft enough that we didn't use crampons for the trip.

We camped at high camp some of us on snow and others on dry ground.  There is a great water source at high camp.

After high camp, the water is limited to wet rocks other than the outcroppings just above high camp (streams there).

The summit block is pretty much free of snow except for the first section.  That snow sheat was sending most people off route.  The main gully is the one with all the rap anchors on both sides of the gully.  If you don't see rap anchors on both sides you are in the wrong gully.  Climb the snow sheat right to left (not straight up) and then into the gully with all the rap anchors (there are about nine of them).

Get up early, a mass of people were on the glacier and coming up as we were rappelling. I mean a bunch of people.  I was glad we had summited and were heading back.