We were about half way up the Sulfide when John decided to head back. He would be much slower than us on the way down so we figured that we'd meet back at camp. Besides, he wasn't prepared to climb the summit pyramid. We weren't sure that we were prepared ourselves.

The wind started to pick up on the upper slopes. So much for our powder. Much of the snow had turned to ice and we were beginning to question the feasibility of skiing the pyramid chute. There was much less snow than when we had skied it the previous spring and we weren't even sure that we could make it to the top. It looked like there might be a couple of rock sections and the exposure was frightening.

We skinned up the final slope and stopped near the right side of the pyramid. I didn't like the feeling when I took of my skis. I sunk about a foot beneath a breakable crust. The skiing didn't worry me then. I was more concerned about the 1,000ft climb up the pyramid.

I didn't have crampons but that wasn't a problem. I ended up having to wait for the others while they put theirs on. Josh managed to rip his pants on the first step. I broke trail the rest of the way.

The snow got worse as we entered the main chute. The crust was still there but we sunk deeper. The next couple hundred feet was slow going. I followed the chute to where it ended about 20ft below the summit ridge. The snow turned to ice in-between rocks. I stemmed across the ice and made my way up the final stretch. I would have liked to have had a rope for this section but I wasn't about to turn around after having come this far. There was a snow face farther left but it looked like it was too steep to climb. Jason made sure of this. The Hummels followed my lead as I crawled my way up the final step to the summit.

The feeling was as spectacular as before (see Spring 00). The exposure was even more daunting.

We spent quite awhile on top for no reason other than to be there. The sun kept us warm and the views kept us entertained. We eventually left because it looked like another group would be heading up the chute and we didn't want to knock snow on them while we skied down.

We put on our skis a couple feet below the summit.

We dropped in on the face that was too steep to climb. I was the first to go. The crust caught me off guard. I didn't break through but I had a hard time controlling my speed. I made a few turns down to where the chute narrowed and ended up side slipping for about 20ft. This section had an ice runnel that was not very ski friendly. My tails kept slipping out. The slope opened up after that so I turned my attention to the Hummels. Josh and Jason had both dropped the first turn. That must have scared them because they ended up side slipping the entire chute. Jason took another line in order to avoid the ice runnel. He was able to make a few turns there. Troy ended up walking down because he has never seen the Hummels flail. I'm not sure what got into me but I ended up doing alright.

The main problem with the chute was that if you fell you would most likely die. I should have paid more attention going up because that would not have been a good time to fall either. The other groups turned around just shy of the summit. I don't blame them.

We finished our warm up and continued down the Sulfide.

The snow kept getting better as we made our way down. We stopped on top of a steep face that Jason and I planned to ski. I set up for a photo and Jason took some air off the top. He skied down ok and everything looked great. I packed my camera and hiked up for some speed while the others continued to ski down. They stopped way below and Josh pulled out his video camera to film me. I skied down and just as I jumped off the top, the slope fractured beneath me. The slab was probably 8 to 12 inches deep and 200ft wide. I'm not sure exactly how long it was because I didn't stick around to find out. I made a few turns but was able to stay ahead of the avalanche. Good thing because the others would have taken at least 30 minutes to reach me.

Josh caught most of it on film. He did turn the camera to yell but I was fully aware of my situation. I skied down to them and we shook heads and left.

We skied together back to camp where John was waiting. He packed up and took off. The rest of us finished packing and caught up with him a short while later. One of his snowshoes broke on the way down. I'm surprised that was all that broke because the skiing was terrible. All that rain had turned the snow into a sheet of ice. This was much worse than the crust on the pyramid chute because we'd break through from time to time. Falling with a heavy pack is not fun and getting up is almost as bad. The trees didn't help either. Somehow, we were able to ski all the way down to the cars.

The weekend was packed with adventure. We skied 50 degree crust of the top of Mount Shuksan, had a close encounter with an avalanche and plowed our way through a forest. We also had two great camps in-between. I can't imagine any better way to spend new years.

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