Route: Mount Shuksan/Fisher Chimneys (North Cascades)
Mountain Information:
- Name: Mount Shuksan
- Region: North Cascades
- Summit Elevation: 9131 ft / 2783 m
- SummitPost:
- Peakbagger:
- WTA Link:
- Mountaineers Link:
Driving Directions:
- Trailhead: Lake Ann Trailhead
- Co-ordinates: 48.8511, -121.6861
- Address: Deming, WA 98244
- Elevation: 4765 ft / 1452 m
- Pass: Northwest Forest Pass
- Directions from WTA: "From I-5 North, take exit 255 and continue on Hwy 542 to Glacier, where you will find services and tourist information. From Glacier, continue on Hwy 542 another 23 miles to Austin Pass. The well marked trailhead will be on your right with a paved parking lot just below Artist Point."
- Road condition
- Weather forecast
- Avalanche danger forecast:
Route Information: Fisher Chimneys
- Gain: 6,750 ft
- Round Trip: 17 miles
- Difficulty: Basic Glacier Climb
- Season: July, August
- Source: https://www.mountaineers.org/explore/routes-places/mt-shuksan-fisher-chimneys
- Existing tracks:
- Caltopo Route: https://caltopo.com/m/NAHQ
- Route information from WTA:
- Approach: The first high camp is at 6400 ft. We took a break here, but moved up higher to a camp at ~7600 feet to give us an early start on the rib. There is a very large flat area here, perfect spot to spend the night if you’re up for the extra elevation. This camp also allows for more solitude than the lower camps, as we were the only group camped here. No running water so we melted snow, without filtering.
- Climbing: We roped up and stayed on the west side of the glacier. The east side of the glacier is more heavily crevassed, but as of Sunday, there was a large distance (300-400 feet+) from the climbing route to any openings on the east side of the glacier. There is one large crevasse right at the top of Hell’s Highway, but it’s obvious and easily avoidable. We ascended to ~8600 ft and went to the obvious notch where the route begins. There's enough room for 6 people, I hip belayed my followers up to the notch. I transitioned to rock climbing but did not wear rock shoes. The SE rib is 5.4, positive handholds, and airy. 2 pitches with a 60 meter rope because we simul climbed it. I wish I owned tricams because those would have been helpful. I brought small nuts, small cams to 0.75, and 10 singles and 4 doubles.
- Descent: From the summit there's an obvious rap station climbers left of the gully. But we scrambled down to the next rap station. 4 raps with a single 60 m should do it but we had two 60 m ropes so we were leap-frogging, sending the second rope with the second climber. The second rap traverses the gully and then the two other raps finish climber’s right of the gully. The fourth rap station we set up a double rope rappel to get us to safer ground.
Misc
- Videos (many more on youtube):
- Other Links:
- Notes:
- high camp (7600')
- Watch for rockfall in Chimneys
- Take special care on the summit pyramid gully because of loose rock and multiple parties
- I would definitely recommend camping at 7600 if the group is ok hauling overnight packs up there. It was a pretty awesome spot to camp and gave us a nice head start in the morning.
- Topo maps: CalTopo map.
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