Mount shuksaN
June 25-26, 2011
Brooke and I had wanted to climb Mt. Shuksan for a while, but hadn't gotten motivated to plan the trip until Brooke brought it up with Steve the previous weekend. He was in, so we quickly planned the last minute trip via the Sulphide Glacier route. We headed up to Marblemount, in the North Cascades, on Friday night and camped at a Forest Service campground. We were up early Saturday morning to get our permit at the ranger station since there were only six permits allowed for this route. After getting our permit, we headed to the trailhead at 2,500 ft. The weather wasn't great, with low clouds hanging above us and light drizzle at times on the way up to camp. As we made our way onto the Sulphide Glacier, we entered the clouds and lost most of our visibility. We reached our planned camp area at 6,500 ft, set up camp, and began melting snow for water. As we sat there, the clouds opened up every so often, but we never saw the summit. It was cold and snowed a little while we made dinner. We went to bed early, and got up early for an alpine start.
When we got up the sky was crystal clear and we had a great view of the summit, the milky way, and the rising moon. The temperature had dropped, and the snow had hardened up nicely. We roped up and left camp at 4 AM, headed for the summit in perfect conditions. When we reached the summit pyramid, we were the first ones there, and could see a couple other groups behind us. After a quick snack break, we started the exciting climb up the pyramid. The climb was a lot of fun, and soon we reached the summit. After a few minutes on the summit, the next group of three arrived. There was just enough room on the summit for the six of us, so we snapped some group photos and got down off the summit to let the third group of three up. By the time we made it down the summit pyramid, there were several groups of climbers on their way up or gathered at the base. Good thing we got up early. We made our way back to camp and enjoyed the sunshine and blue sky a while before packing up and heading out. It turned out to be a great trip with a really fun climb!
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