Mount Shuksan, Shannon Ridge — Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022

Climb of Shuksan via the Shannon Ridge Trail/Sulphide Glacier and gully scramble Oct 1-2.

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RED TAPE: Walk up permits for this entry point (Baker Lake Road) to the National Park are available via email the day before - no need to trek to Marblemount! We submitted an email on Friday morning and the ranger called back to confirm details and take the $26 payment on phone (until their office closes on the 8th of October). More info at https://www.nps.gov/noca/planyourvisit/permits.htm

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ROAD: The forest road was bumpy and potholed in spots, but could probably be done slowly in a normal car. There was a well-stocked outhouse at the trailhead. America the Beautiful/NW Forest Pass for parking.

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TRAIL: The approach was actually very chill for the first 2 miles with gradual incline, and was well-maintained for the most part (one little washout-type area that was a bit confusing for a moment). The trail got rather steep/rocky/rooty for the second half before mellowing out on the ridge for a while (you get views of Baker here), and then steepened again as it went through more rugged and rocky terrain to the edge of the Sulphide glacier. Abundant berries slowed our progress considerably.

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We camped at the bivy sites which were situated on a point at 6200'. There was plenty of running water coming off the glacier in the area. There was also a composting toilet just below the bivy sites that came in handy (since no one loves blue bags right?), and came with a stellar view.

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On summit day we got a bit of a later start than planned - I think we were on the glacier a little after 6 a.m. There was a short section of glacier ice to cross leaving camp, and then it was snow travel to the base of the headwall, which did have exposed glacial ice. We tried to avoid the ice as much as possible on our ascent and stuck to climber's left, but we did climb through some sections of ice that I would consider no-fall zones since there were some open cracks below. We did find a slightly better route that stayed more on snow for the descent down the headwall.

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Once we gained the ridge, the traverse to the summit pyramid was on snow. There were some sections of large cracks and crevasses and snow bridges that we navigated through with care. I had a questionable post-hole in one section that didn't look cracked, so as always, stay alert and stay roped up!

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We had planned on climbing the SE rock rib, but time constraints led us up the Class 3(+?) scramble route instead. The start was loose and chossy, but it improved as we ascended. The smoke had worsened over the day and views were pretty hazy, but it still felt awesome to reach the summit.

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We opted to rap the descent which took us a while. We had two 30m ropes tied together, which did not quite reach all the way between stations. I down-climbed one of the transitions, and we decided to just sling a boulder at the next stop and rap off of that to the next station. 

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We retraced our steps back to camp, packed up and ended up hiking out in the dark by headlamp for the full North Cascades experience. It was the first time on Shuksan for all three of us, and it felt really special to get this one so late in the season.