Shuksan NW Couloir
Sleepy. Thats how I feel. With good reason. Its 3:00 in the morning and I have had ~3 hours of sleep. Climbing at Stone followed by great camaraderie at Tuesday-night Tacos does not make an early bed-time easy. Its time for some coffee... Robert pulls into my driveway, and we throw my ski gear in next to Richards snowshoes and cameras he’s testing. I plop in the back seat, and the excited discussion about everything begins. I want sleep. The conversation is interesting. No dice for shut-eye. We get to the parking lot. We point Richard in the direction of Heather Meadows and the Ski-patrol for more information on the mountain: a first time snowshoer does not want to be following us. Throw on cloths, boots, skin our skis, pick up our packs and go. Its 7:20am. Only the dawn-sun is up. No need for headlamps: the snow makes everything brighter. I’m skinning over an avy-debris field. This is the worst part of the approach. Fortunately there’s maybe five inches of fresh atop the s