Mount Shuksan, Elevation 9,131ft
Price Glacier, 55+ degrees
May 2, 2003
1 day
Ben, Sky
The Price Glacier. Our climb is in blue
and our ski is in red. Nooksack Tower is seen on the left and the North Face of
Mount Shuksan on the right.
My first attempt to ski the Price Glacier was a folly. My second came a week prior and although the odds had increased, the initiative had not. The third time was a charm. My slides were mistakenly developed as negatives so the photos didn't turn out as hoped but I expect the memories to last.
Click Here for a link to Sky's trip report.
Sky climbing the steep chute next to
Nooksack Tower. I had no intention or desire to ski this slope so we were faced
with a series of rappels or finding a different route down. You can't really
tell but there are several icy runnels to his left and it narrows to a width of
less than 10 feet beneath here.
Nevertheless, we pressed on and this was
the result. Looking east towards Nooksack Tower from the summit plateau. This
was one of the few breaks in visibility and gave us a close look at the
enormous cornice that we tested our luck beneath during the last part of the
climb.
Looking west towards the upper Price Glacier
that we deemed impassible due to the bergschrund seen on the left. The
Northeast Chute can be seen in the center and Price Lake at the bottom of the
valley.
Sky repacking at our turnaround. The
summit of Shuksan lies to the left, a distant traverse across the Crystal
Glacier. Given the visibility and suspense, something neither Sky or I could
stomach.
Sky dropping into the open chute, skier's
left of where we climbed. We skied to the right of the sharp saddle in front of
him.
Sky cranking turns down the steep, fluted
chute. We sidestepped a good portion of the remaining chute as it narrowed and
became icy.
Sky checking our options next to Nooksack
Tower. Fall here and it's goodbye baseball. The slope in front of him
was better than what we climbed but not by much. Again, we ended up
sidestepping a good portion of it.
The Price is Right. Having crossed the
deep ice runnel (the only point where I took my skis off), we were pretty much
home free at this point. All that remained were some relatively flat turns
beneath Nooksack Tower, a gradual traverse above Price Lake, a steep descent
through the woods, a short schwack through some flats, three miles of road and
two creek crossings. Ok, so maybe we weren't sold quite yet.