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 snowice-boulders. Glad that fresh is here. Its cold. Damn glad it is, too. Can’t have heat destroying the precious flakes.

This skin track is well constructed. They must know what they’re doing. Two people going up. No down tracks? They must have started before us. I don’t see them though? Maybe they’re summiting. Lets hope they don’t weaken a snow bridge for us to dive into. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that many tacos... too much weight.

Its nice to get up during the dawn and sunrise. Too many peaks to the north, I need to stop and memorize those ones someday. And they turned off most of the clouds in Canada too. Sweet. Got to keep ascending. The gnar is waiting.

I should pack real food for lunch. Robert is eating curry. I have chocolate covered pretzels and granola bars. Man, pizza is going to be good tonight. There’s the trail breakers going up the hourglass. I wonder if they’re going for the Couloir also? Hope not. But it is pleasant to follow their tracks... We can see the Olympics, and clouds down in the valley. Hope they don’t rise to quickly.

The hanging glacier is expansive as ever. I see only resplendent shades of white, blue and rock.
Just need to traverse the glacier and find the entrance. We cross the glacier and meet up with trailblazers Eric and Shane as they begin the descent. Yup. The NW couloir is their target. At least they’ll be testing the stability.

We ascend a bit further and deskin. Yay, more pretzles. At least Mt. Rainier is visible... Oooh, and I have a Gu. Wicked!

We follow Eric and Shane’s descent tracks. Wait, wait wait. One of them is ascending out of it? He doesn’t look worried... good so then not an accident or anything. Maybe they ended up on the Hanging glacier and one of them turned back? Better find our own way to the entrance.

I dislike this patchy slightly-rimed wind-blown snow up here. Lets hope it doesn’t stay this way. I know it will be better down... but what if it isn’t? Don’t worry for now, just find the entrance.

Is this it? Nope. Thats the North Face. Phew. Good thing, cause this patchy snow-ice crap is doing anything but getting better. We checked it out and know how to get to the face for good conditions. I guess Eric and Shane’s descent was the right way.

This is it. Friggan steep. Jump. Jump. Ju...Shitttt. That’s ice underneath the snow. Need to jump lighter and not get to the ice...

The entrance wasn’t that bad. But we’d better get across this next part without falling. There’s a cliff right below us. Inconvenient. And this icy snow is great fun to edge on and the side slipping is a riot.

I’m golden. I think. Wait for Robert, then we can go. I hope he has a bit easier time than I did. Nope? Ok, well don’t feel that bad then.

Man those turns were friggan awesome. The sluffs aren’t too big, and the top layer is light. This would be amazing without that refrozen snow. Can’t complain. Except when there isn’t that top layer of frosting.

I! Am! In! Heaven! If only the rest of the Couloir is as powdery good as that last part... Fuck... not quite. Just go around that last little cliff, and we’re done. We’ll check out the BYS some other time. Richard is probably waiting back at the lodge.

I’m glad we’re at the bottom, but wish that I was still coming down. Can’t wait to get back down that in less variable conditions. Or even in similar conditions. Celebrate with a little food to fuel our return: pretzles, and the chocolate is now falling off them... I’ll go for another granola bar.

We avoid the avy debris. Instead we’re now walking across a stream. Man we need more snow. The clouds have descended on Shuksan. We definitely scored for the weather window. And now for the best part, the 800ft re-ascent to the parking lot. Need to find the escalator.

Richard is waiting in the car. He got us a few pints at last call, but we were too late to enjoy them. “If you told us that’s what waited for us, we would have returned faster!”

That Couloir was damn good. So is this pizza I’m chowing down. Robert looks like that beer is exactly what he needed. That and the baby-sized pub grinder. He’s going to pass out soon. Too bad Richard hasn’t yet driven in the States. Hope this coffee is enough for me to drive home.

Sleep is amazing. Especially after a wild day of skiing with a great partner.