Mt. Shuksan: Sulphide Glacier Trip Report

Mt. Shuksan: Sulphide Glacier
North Cascades National Park
Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. 

Day 1: Mike Walter and I met the crew at the Sedro Wolley Ranger Station at 7am where we went through a quick gear check and got our climbing permits. We drove the hour to the trailhead where the skies were threatening with rain. The approach into the Sulphide Glacier is about 4,000’ where you walk on a trail through a dense forest before topping out on a beautiful ridge offering views of Mt. Baker to the west. About two hours into our six hour hike the rain started as we put on our Gore Tex pants and jackets. We arrived into camp soaked as we put up camp and tried to dry out in our tents.

Day 2: The rain continued throughout the night but we awoke in the morning to cloudy but try conditions. Our camp is right at the base of the Sulphide Glacier in the rocks and typically offers up impressive views of the summit pyramid of Shuksan. However, with clouds the summit wasn’t in our sights and we would have to wait until summit day before we got our first glimpse of it. The Sulphide Glacier provided us a great place to train for the day where we covered self and team arrest, walking techniques for snow and rope travel. After a quick snow school we headed to the rocks where we covered some basic climbing techniques. The afternoon was spent drying out and relaxing before our summit day.

Mount Baker

Day 3: We woke up at 3 am and quickly got out of camp heading towards the summit pyramid on the Sulphide Glacier. This was the first time all trip that we could the summit pyramid we were about the climb. It’s quite an impressive site from camp and looks daunting in the distance. After two stretches we arrived at the base of the summit pyramid where we took a nice long break before climbing the last 800’. The route we took was up the central gulley which had a couple of snow patches in it but also provided us with some 3rd, 4th, and 5th class climbing on rock. We were two teams in the gulley and made our quickly to summit of Mt. Shuksan where we had views of Rainier to south and Canada to the north. Mt. Baker loomed large to our west and the weather was beautiful with warm temps and clear skies. We spent two hours on the summit waiting for other teams to climb up the gulley so we wouldn’t knock loose rock down on them. We descended the central gulley getting lowered until we were back on the Sulphide Glacier. On the descent back to camp we were able to glissade a good portion back to our camp where we hung out and enjoyed the evening before heading to bed.

Day 4: We awoke early in the morning and headed back out the trail we walked in on back to the cars at the trailhead. We headed back into Burlington and ate some Mexican food before saying our goodbyes.

RMI Guide
Andy Bond
(Photos: RMI Climber, Mi Hillefors)