Mt. Shuksan, Fisher Chimneys route
Saturday, Jul 13, 1996. Solo

My rendition of the cliche shot of Mt. Shuksan in Picture Lake.

The first surprise was that at the trailhead, which is basically the Mt. Baker ski area, there was no restrooms. None. There were two outhouses, both padlocked. Another advantage of Mt. Rainier. I had some trouble finding the proper trailhead, I walked up to the chain Lakes trailhead before figuring out what was wrong (thanks to my 7.5 degree map, I was eventually able to locate the trailhead fairly precisely, once I looked.) So, I didn't get on the trail until around 7:00, rather later than I'd hoped.

The trail goes downhill into a beautiful valley, past marmot and wildflowers, and though a meadow of grass crossed by streams, and after four miles, you're at Lake Ann, which in the middle of July, was still almost solid ice, except for a turquoise ring of water around the edge. I ran into a couple of guys who weren't climbing because they didn't like the look of the snow, one of whom walked off with evident disapproval when I said I was climbing solo, the other spent about ten minutes explaining the route to me, pointing out the access to the Chimneys.

The approach to Fisher Chimneys.

The trail (once I got on it, I ended up taking the wrong fork anyhow) was pretty easy to follow, not too difficult, class 3 in some places but mostly easier than that. I ran into a couple who were turning back because they didn't want to climb a steep snowfield ahead. They had taken the wrong branch too, and hadn't corrected themselves, and had wasted a lot of time and energy getting up from the glacier. Later I talked to a couple of guys who were going to summit tomorrow, and they opined that it was almost impossible to find the entry to the Chimneys unless you had them pointed out to you, as I had.

Once out of the Chimneys the sun got even hotter. My expectation that this would be a good place to be on the hottest day of the year was imperfect. It seemed to go a little quicker than the Sulfide Glacier route, though, maybe because there's more variety in the approach. Winnie's slide is steep, about 80 degrees, probably, and then you're on the Lower Price Glacier (I think) and descend slightly to the entry to Hell's Highway. I'd thought about trying to do the hourglass, but it was only half snow, and had a nasty looking bergshrund at the top of it, and Beckey says that it's not a time-saver anyhow, so I followed the footprints ahead of me, thinking light thoughts as I stepped over a couple of narrow crevasses.

The summit pyramid. The central couloir runs down to the right from the summit, and is snowfilled in this view.

I made it to the base of the summit pyramid around 2:00, but couldn't do the rock climb to the top, messing around on the right skyline. There were a couple of guys there, father and son, I think, who had decided the same thing. The father said that it was easier to go up the central gully once the snow was gone, but it was steep snow all the way up. So, they turned around and headed down (and disappeared from the Sulfide glacier in about five minutes) and after calling Heidi I packed up and followed them.

Then I saw a set of footprints heading up the pyramid and I figured, well, why not give it a shot. There were some spots where it was pretty icy and slick, and I was pretty scared, but I managed to summit by staying on the snow practically the whole way. The last few yards were easy rock. There was not summit book (at least that I found) It appears to be all granite (as is most of the mountain*) and near the summit is a lot of quartz. It's all broken up, fragmented rock. I was up there for about three minutes, just long enough to take some photos and try to call Heidi (I couldn't get through, neither the home nor her office line were connecting.)

Looking down on Lake Ann.

Looking north: Tommihoi Peak(T), American Border Peak(A), Mt Larribee (L). Compare with my photo from Yellow Astor Butte.

Looking west to Mt. Baker, Lake Ann, and the Kulshan Caldera.

I descended from the summit pyramid as quickly as I dared, face in. Oddly, it seemed more secure descending than it had climbing, my toes seemed to get a much better hold into the snow. I didn't glissade as I'd planned, because of the fear of getting out of control. I was strictly in an evacuation mode.

I also made it off the Sulfide in a few minutes; it's kind of steep, enough that you can half-slide on your feet, but remain in control. Down Hell's Highway, and back onto the lower Price, where I got to climb uphill to Winnie's slide. Suddenly the new strength I'd been feeling was revealed to be just the easiness of descending. Winnie's slide was steep enough that I descended that, too, face-in.

Somehow I got off-route on the descent of the chimneys, and ended up in a horribly sheer, steep spot with no obvious exit. It was clearly some sort of route, because there was a bolt there, and I could see a clear trail below about 20 feet, where I could rapel down to if only I'd brought a rope, but I was almost paralyzed with fear and despair. "Here's where I die," I heard myself say to myself. After a long, slow start-and-stop, looking probably like a cat stuck in a tree, and a lot of praying, I managed to find a way around the obstacle, and things got easier in a hurry. Climbing down the steep snow was a breeze, even without the crampons. It wasn't until I got completely off the chimney access, onto the trail on the scree slope, that I felt truly out of the woods. Beckey says to allow six hours from Lake Ann to the summit, and that was almost exactly right (9:00 to 3:00, including half an hour off wandering at the base of the chimneys and sitting around on the summit pyramid) but it took me half an hour longer than the four hours he allows to return to Lake Ann.

I ran into the father of the father-and-son group, on the trail (uphill) to Lake Ann. They’d camped at the lake, and still had to pack out that night. He seemed pretty beat, he was walking for fifty yards, then resting, walking again, and resting. It's hard to imagine him making it out with a pack much heavier than mine, up from the valley to the trailhead.

I ran into another couple of climbers at the lake, and we talked for a few minutes about the route. In general, it was a very genial, chatty bunch of climbers there, much more open and friendlier than the people you run into on Rainier or other places I've climbed. Like Mt. Stuart, I guess. It was similar to my Stuart experience in other ways, too, the steep rock and slow descent, and ducking my head in the ice-water waterfalls, astonishingly refreshing.

The hike out was beautiful, but longer than coming in. Another couple of tents were set up in the meadows, but it wasn't nearly as crowded as you'd expect, given the beauty of the area (except for the mosquitoes.) I was sufficiently tired that I had to stop, half an hour from the trailhead, and just sit and drink water for ten minutes or so. Usually I can smell the car from there, and push on in, but I was pretty wasted. It felt really good to emerge at the road, and slide down the snow, bypassing the road switchbacks, to the car, as the alpenglow faded from the mountains.

Mt Shuksan after sunset, Venus rising on the right.

I took a couple of photos of Shuksan in the afterglow, Venus was visible in the sky above the Shuksan Arm, and it looked very nice. Then, back down the mountain at full speed, slalloming around the curves, I hit a bat. I didn't get to the Inlaws' until after midnight, a long drive.

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