March 12, 2018, Mount Shuksan

Tim and I were moving on the snow by 5am, and by first light we were making good progress up a well-laid skin track on the White Salmon Glacier. The pre-dawn start was worth it — the skin track was in good shape and the conditions looked more promising than expected, with decent snow even at lower elevation. Certain aspects were wind-affected, but we didn't see any signs of a sun crust on the way up, which was reassuring given the March timing.

We reached the summit at noon. The approach is long and the vertical is real, and there were enough reminders along the way that Shuksan demands respect even on a clean weather day. My first turn off the ridge into the gully on the summit pyramid convinced me that no more turns were needed until we encountered softer snow lower down. The gully was firm and unforgiving. I joked with Tim that I had straight-lined the gully, except my skis were perpendicular to the slope rather than parallel, and my top speed never got above 3mph. Controlled chaos on a tight line.

Out of the gully, the snow softened and we opened it up. The Sulphide Glacier delivered some genuinely nice turns, and Winnie's Slide had good pow that we hadn't fully expected this late in the day. The White Salmon held up well most of the way down, with the quality deteriorating noticeably around 4,000ft where it transitioned into mush. That's the trade-off on a spring day: you earn the good stuff up high and manage the soft stuff on the run-out.

It was a long day but a clean one. No signs of instability beyond the firm summit terrain, and no major route-finding complications once the sun came up. For a March objective in the Mt Baker area, Shuksan delivered.

I write about hiking, skiing, and exploring Washington State over at beexploring.com, including trip planning resources for destinations across the Cascades and beyond. Check NWAC before heading out — the Mt Baker forecast zone covers this terrain.