I have had a mild obsession with Mount Shuksan for as long as I can remember. It is a Pacific Northwest icon and is a perfect example of the ruggedness of the North Cascades. I love how it towers above the Mount Baker ski area and how its glaciers pour off it.
When the opportunity arose to climb it, I jumped at the opportunity. Fern, Erik and I decided on the fun and varied route called the Fisher Chimneys. It is a bit more challenging than the standard Sulphide Glacier route and would take us through a wide variety of terrain.
The trip began with an early morning hike to Lake Ann in the dark. We got started early ( a little after 4 am) and made the uneventful trek (which actually loses elevation to start out) to the lake in under 2 hours. At Lake Ann, the sky had finally brightened enough to get our first good look at the towering face of Mount Shuksan in front of us. The chimneys seemed improbable from this angle and the Upper and Lower Curtis Glaciers looked intimidating.
We began venturing out to the chimneys on good trails until the terrain steepened and some scrambling became required. There was a distinct, narrow, path in this section that clung to the cliffsides. It was super fun and views started opening up to Mount Baker behind us.
As we continued up, the terrain became more and more scramble territory, but with vigilant route-finding everything stayed in the class 3 range. Before long, we topped out of the chimneys!
The next challenge ahead was a snowy “wall” known as Winnie’s Slide. We put on crampons and broke out our ice axes and carefully climbed the steep snow slope. Winnie’s slide can be mostly ice late in the season, but thankfully for us in July it was relatively soft snow with nice bucket steps.
After topping out on Winnie’s Slide, we came to a flat area where some people camp. This was an impressive spot, with the exposed blue ice of the Upper Curtis Glacier visible directly behind the camp area.
To circumvent this, we scrambled up on rock before entering the glacier on a flatter, totally snowy part. Here we roped up and began the nearly flat traverse over to “Hell’s Highway”. Hell’s Highway is another moderately steep snow slope that leads a climber up and onto the standard Sulphide Glacier route. Here we passed under a rugged pinnacle of rock that makes for an impressive subpeak.
By the time we were on the Sulphide, it had gotten quite hot and the last bit up to the summit pyramid was a bit of a slog. We took a moment to rest before gearing up for the final scramble.
I think the biggest objective hazard of Mount Shuksan was the other people on the summit pyramid. All the snow had melted off of it, which meant that we could scramble up rock but also meant that others could knock debris down from above. We were far from the only people on the mountain that day, and there were plenty of people above us setting rappels that could swipe rocks right down the chute that we were climbing up. Going into the climb I was a bit unsure as to how the summit pyramid would go from a pure difficulty perspective, but now that I was up close, I was more worried about rockfall. When I come back to Mount Shuksan, I’ll probably opt for the low fifth-class ridge route on the summit pyramid.
Because of this, we moved as quickly as we could while still being safe. The scrambling was class 3+ and felt somewhat enjoyable. There was one time a party above us shouted “ROCK!” down at us but thankfully we were well out of the fall line of the small rock that had been knocked down. We really motored up the summit pyramid and before we knew it there was no more rock to climb. It felt great to be on top of one of my favorite mountains – and the views were superb. Glaciated peaks could be seen in every direction.
We enjoyed our time on the summit and then carefully descended, being extra sure to knock kick any rocks down on other parties. It was a relief to get out of rockfall hazard zone and we happily roped up and set out back down the Sulphide. We reversed our course all the way back to the start of the chimneys, with some face-in downclimbing on Hell’s Highway and Winnie’s slide.
The chimneys were fun to descend, with only one move being borderline class 4, but easily manageable. I loved the skinny trail just as much on the descent. We were soon cruising down to Lake Ann, and ended up taking a short nap near a creek on the hike out. Turns out the big day had caught up to us! We returned to the parking lot 15 and a half hours after we started, exhausted but satisfied to have Shuksan in the bag.
Final Stats: 14.68 miles / 6,002 feet of gain
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