Shannon Ridge, Mount Shuksan — Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013

North Cascades

I loved every part of this trip. The hike to the high camp at the toe of the Sulphide glacier would be worth doing in its own right. Views of Baker and other north cascades peaks are outstanding, and blueberries are ripe! We set out from high camp early on a foggy morning, hoping for some clearing. By the time we reached the ridge we got some sunbreaks and awesome views of Baker. The route follows a smooth part of the glacier with few evident crevassses, but we passed by some huge ones. I wasn't sure what to expect of the summit pyramid scramble, having seen many conflicting reports. We somehow missed the yellow arrow painted on the rocks, and headed off to the right of the usual gully. The climbing was lovely if a bit exposed for a while until we hit some very exposed class 5 stuff on a ridge. Scrambling around to the left we could see the gully we should have taken, but it looked like we might have to down climb a couple hundred feet to get into it. Fortunately we were able to discover a route into the gully that was a lot easier than it looked. Climbing up the gully was super fun although I was glad we were the only party climbing that day. I would not recommend doing this hike on a weekend. We climbed in and out of fog but were blessed by a sunbreak on the summit. We all exalted and ate and then had to go down. A couple of members of our party were new to scrambling and were toproped for sections of the downclimb. I was really glad I had done Del Campo a couple of weeks ago since I felt well prepared--this climb is not that much harder. I've seen all sorts of rankings for it I'd say if you stick to the standard gully route it is mostly similar to Del Campo which everyone agrees is class 3, with a few somewhat harder sections. Routefinding is needed to avoid more technical moves. The main danger is rockfall--helmets are highly recommended. We got back to high camp after about 9 hours. We had planned to hike out the same day as the summit, but that would have entailed some hiking by headlamp. High camp is so nice we decided to stay another evening and hike out the next morning. We had a great breakfast at Joy's bakery in Sedro-Woolley. 5 miles and 3500' from trailhead to highcamp. Trail is unmaintained and crosses some snowfields--iceaxes recommended to be carried for these. 4 miles and 3000' from highcamp to summit. Rope, crampons, iceaxes and crevasse rescue equipment and experience needed for glacier travel with possible hidden cravasses. 500' of fun scrambling on summit pyramid. Helmets strongly recommended for possible rockfall. Rope and a belay device may be needed for beginners. If conditions are snowy or icy the summit pyramid part may be more than a mere scramble.