Mount Shuksan — Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024

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