Mount Shuksan — Friday, Jul. 18, 2008

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

Henry Custer sighted ""Mount Thuskan"" on June 8, 1859 becoming the first European to view this spectacular area. He was a Swiss topographer working with the U.S. Boundary Survey and on his first exploration that led him from the Chilliwack River to the upper North Fork Nooksack and back. Custer was enchanted with the Cascades and for someone who lived and climbed in the Swiss Alps he has flowering comments about the Cascades. ""I leave it to a better pen to describe the sublimity of true Mountain scenery in the Cascades Mts, as seen from a point of such altitude; it must be seen it can not be described. Nowhere do the Mountain masses and peaks present such strange, fantastic, dauntless, and startling outlines as here. Whoever wishes to see Nature in all its primitive glory and grandeur, in its ferocious wildness, must to and visit these Mountain regions."" Our plan was to day-climb this peak and arranged a meet-time of 0400 at Ash Way P&R to allow sufficient daylight for that objective. We drove on SR 20 and turned left onto the Baker Lake Rd. Then we drove ~24 miles before turning left onto FS Rd 1152. This we took for 4 1/2 miles until it ended at the Shannon Ridge trailhead. The Shannon Ridge trail begins as an old logging road and continues as such for a couple miles. After several switchbacks the logged areas are left behind and the pleasantness of an old-growth forest envelopes the hiker. The trail seems to be occasionally maintained but there are several large logs which have to be surmounted. The trail eventually became covered with snow and we were fortunate to follow in the recognizable bootprints of prior hikers. The trail brings you to the ridgetop at ~4600 ft. After a mile the ridge abuts a cliffy slope slope which is breached by hiking NE through a col. We then hiked NNE at ~5450 ft on moderately steep snow covered slopes to reach the terminus of the Sulfide Glacier. It was then at ~6300 ft that we put on harnesses and roped up for the glacier traverse. There are several crevasses which can be easily worked around. At the summit pyramid we removed our crampons and began the trickiest part of the climb, the summit block. The ascent involves working a gully which is peppered with short sections of Class 4 rock. This is definitely an area where you want to wear a helmet. Aside from a 50 ft section of snow where the ice axe is needed the rock at this time is bare. The handholds/footholds are nicely angular and solid. We shared the gully with a dozen other people which made rockfall a possible hazard. Some parties used rope but I think that only multiplied the risk of rockfall possibly loosening rocks as it dragged across the surface. The warm air of the day allowed us to leisurely enjoy the summit capturing the beauty around us. Again Custer writes about this magical area, ""For hours and hours, the observing spectator could sit here, contemplating the wonderful works of nature without becoming tired, the eye luxuriously feasting in the matchless diversity of forms and colors, ever changing, never alike, the mind overawed by the sublimity of the works of the creator."" On the descent we stowed our harnesses and rope walking in the bootprints of previous climbers. The portion of the Sulfide Glacier used on the approach is low angled and the risk of crevasses seemed small. Elevation gain; 6720 ft Distance travelled; 14 miles Car-to-car; 11 hrs 15 min.