Last weekend eight of us climbed Shuksan via Sulphide glacier, 7 of 8 climbed pyramid to the top.
Started from Seattle around 7am, road to trail is excellent and passable for all vehicles. Trail in good condition, we met two rangers who checked our permit. They said they dug toiled at 6200 and wished us having fun. Around 4200 we hit first snow, trail is wet and muddy at some parts but overall condition is good. Weather was foggy and we didn't see much around us. Bowl travers was easy, snow was slushy and easy to go. After the travers we climbed couple more snow hills and put camp around 6200. We found few more tents there it was guided group, they came at Friday and were waiting good weather for summit. 6200 is good spot because of it flat, has toilet and water. Next morning we woke up at 4:30, weather was clear and great. Started from camp at 6 am. I wish we knew how much time it will take, so please start early, 6 am is late. From camp to pyramid just plain glacier walk, no crevasses on the way and beautiful view around. When we came to pyramid we have seen how many people there. Two or three groups was going down, only one group of two people who climbed by ridge but not by gully was successful with summit. We stoped at pyramid base for decision, we understood that we can not climb ridge because of not all people comfortable with 4-5 class same time we can not climb gully because another group just started and they can trigger rock fall at any time. Some people suggested go back since it was pretty late already and other group not even climbed half... We decided to go closer to the gully to see how it looks from below. To get to the gully you need to cross big and steep snow patch, we used few pickets on that part, why not use it if we brought it. We set at the gully base and seen that for some reason group before us decided to turn around, maybe because of time maybe some other reason. They rappel down and we started climb. I was leading gully climb and climbed it first 60 m, I put few protection points in between. If you comfortable with 3-4 class climb without protection you can skip it but there is no right for fall. There are few well built anchors for rappel, I tied tope to the rappel ring and signaled that next can climb. Bring 60 or 70 meter rope, that's aprox distance between rappel points, of course you can build your own but there are not many spots for solid anchor. When second came I started next pitch with new rope. There two more snow patches in the gully that you can climb, it help little bit. We put three ropes all the way up to the summit. Climbed it one by one and then rappeled down. On the rappel rope stuck few times and our last climbed up again to free it up. This was we started from pyramid to the camp only at 5 am. Reached camp, packed it and headed back to trailhead. As I said where was excellent and all the way we seen Baker and beautiful sunset.
Great technical climb and great experience!
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