My good friend Chris just moved back to the Pacific Northwest after a prolonged work relocation to the alpine-free wasteland some call Phoenix. I welcomed him home (and back to the alpine) with a nice three day trip up Mt. Shuksan via the Hanging Glacier. I can’t recommend the route enough and suggest it as an alternative to other “classic” routes on the mountain. We approached via the Fisher Chimneys, then dropped down the White Salmon Glacier about 1000′, and then crossed the NW Rib route to gain the Hanging Glacier. The climb itself features a nice mix of glacier travel, ice climbing up to 65 degrees (or steeper if you want), and some 5.6 rock on the east ridge of the summit pyramid. A nice little alpine package, perfect to get Chris psyched on the Pacific Northwest again!

Over the weekend I climbed the White Salmon Glacier route on the north side of one of the Cascades’ jewels– Mt. Shuksan. Although the route was guarded by a four hour approach (three of which were head high slide alder and brush), it was well worth it. The climb features about fifteen hundred feet of steep snow and glacier climbing on the White Salmon, then crossing the Upper Curtis Glacier, all of it topped off by about 600′ of rock climbing up to 5.6 on the summit pyramid. We descended the Fischer Chimneys down to Lake Anne, then a short downhill road bike ride brought us back to the car. A fantastic alpine climb with a great friend!