Mt. Shuksan: Hanging Glacier Headwall

By:  Sam
March 29, 2012


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We took a few deep breaths, enjoyed the brief return of the sun, and took a few photos.

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What followed were some of the best, and most improbably located turns of the year. Casual flowing arcs down the hanging glacier to what felt like the end of the earth.

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At this point a skier can go either right or left. Turning right exposes the skier to a wide-ish snowy ramp, under huge looming seracs and a possible rock step half way down, while turning left involved a lot more steep jump-turning, two narrow chokes, and a probably ice step. As we are both far more comfortable down climbing ice than rock and were’t equipped to rappel, we headed left hoping for smooth stable pow.


Fortunately, things got a bit firmer, so we could stop worrying about slough, unfortunately that meant that the patch of “maybe ice” we’d seen from across the valley was almost certainly going to be ice.

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“What’s it look like down there?!”

As I arrived at Allen, our suspicions were confirmed, there was an ice filled choke that we’d have to negotiate. I briefly suggested skiing through the section, a-la our adventure on Larrabee last winter, but Allen convinced me it had several obvious potential downsides, so we performed a pucker-inducing gear swap just above the ice step. “This will be a great chance to test out your new crampons Sam”… the crampons I’d adjusted for the first time on the fly on top of the run. Gulp.

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Sure enough, right as I was about to start kicking steps into the harder neve, I looked down and noticed that my right toe was nearly half out of the crampon, as I was unroped and looking at the potential for a long fall, this was cause for concern. I managed to bury an axe, clip into it, and perform mid-climb crampon adjustment, but as one might imagine, I was a bit nervous about my feet for the remainder of the down climb.

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Read about the author:   Sam
Enjoy this TR? Read another: TR: Late November in the PNW

Related Stuff:

  1. TR: Mt. Shuksan Hanging Glacier Headwall
  2. TR: Shuksan, Second Day of Summer
  3. Shuksan: Anatomy of a Bail
  4. Shuksan: Second Day of Summer
  5. TR: Coleman Headwall Success
  6. Shuksan: Anatomy of a Bail 2/2/11

8 Comments

  1. Peter
    wrote on March 29th, 2012 at 1:54 pm  
    1

    hi five! way to seize the opportunity

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  2. Christian
    wrote on March 29th, 2012 at 2:14 pm  
    2

    BADASSES!!
    those fd’s are more recent than i would’ve guessed. who’s gonna get those lines off the summit?

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  3. rogerk
    wrote on March 29th, 2012 at 8:17 pm  
    3

    Great report. Thanks.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  4. Jake
    wrote on March 29th, 2012 at 10:09 pm  
    4

    Yes. Killer story. All the elements of a good time. Sun, pucker, faith and doubt. Way to go.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  5. Peter
    wrote on March 30th, 2012 at 8:56 am  
    5

    yeah, I was surprised too by how recent several of the FDs are. Amazing place to ski. someday….

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  6. powhounddd
    wrote on March 30th, 2012 at 10:48 am  
    6

    Great TR, really appreciated. Thanks for skiing. :)

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  7. ml242
    wrote on March 30th, 2012 at 3:18 pm  
    7

    Awesome TR.

    I was pretty puckered trying to get into my skis on the ledge that is the Wanatuska headwall, too.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Sam
      wrote on March 31st, 2012 at 2:36 pm  
      8

      ^^ Awesome! Mind the drop. Glad you enjoyed the TR

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