Mount Shuksan Sulphide Glacier

Flight Information

For sched­uled cours­es and climbs, you should fly into Seat­tle-Taco­ma Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (SeaT­ac). You are respon­si­ble for your trans­porta­tion to down­town Seat­tle. You will meet as a group with your guide(s) ear­ly morn­ing on Day 1 for an ori­en­ta­tion meet­ing and equip­ment check.

Mount Shuksan Sulphide Glacier Day by Day

Day 1

We dri­ve from Seat­tle to the trail­head (2,500 ft / 762 m). The hike to base camp involves 2,900 feet / 884 meters of ele­va­tion gain and takes 5 – 7 hours. We start out in dense for­est then pass through alpine mead­ows and clus­ters of Moun­tain Hem­lock before climb­ing to a sad­dle with beau­ti­ful views of Mount Bak­er and the Pick­et Range. Anoth­er hour of hik­ing up glacial­ly-scoured slopes and we arrive at our camp, which is sit­u­at­ed at the edge of the Sul­phide Glac­i­er (5,400 ft / 1646 m). We ded­i­cat­ed the after­noon toward learn­ing the skills nec­es­sary to con­fi­dent­ly ascend Mount Shuk­san. The train­ing starts with a snow school where you learn how to use your ice axe for mov­ing in bal­ance and for self-arrest. After learn­ing some knots and rope han­dling skills, we intro­duce roped glac­i­er trav­el, dis­cuss glaciol­o­gy and trav­el­ing as a roped team. We fin­ish this day with a large meal and make final prepa­ra­tions for the fol­low­ing morning’s sum­mit attempt.

Day 2

This is a long day and begins with a pre-dawn start – usu­al­ly between 2 – 3 am Sev­er­al hours of cram­pon­ing up the gen­tle Sul­phide Glac­i­er bring us to a crevassed zone at the base of the 700-foot / 213-meter sum­mit pyra­mid. We’ll nav­i­gate this and then start belayed and pitched climb­ing up the steep cen­tral gul­ly. Depend­ing on the sea­son and time of year, this is usu­al­ly a nice mix­ture of snow climb­ing, easy rock, and ledges. Shuksan’s sum­mit is clas­si­cal­ly small! From here you will have views of the com­plex glac­i­ers beneath us as well as the sur­round­ing peaks of the North Cas­cades. We’ll then descend the climb­ing route via a series of low­ers, rap­pels and down climb­ing. Once back on the glac­i­er, camp is reached quick­ly were you enjoy a cel­e­bra­to­ry meal and some well need­ed rest.

Day 3

After a relax­ing break­fast, we’ll break camp, and head down to the trail­head. Plan on being back in Seat­tle around 6 – 7 pm. Depend­ing on the weath­er con­di­tions, your group may decide to climb on the third day of the itin­er­ary. This con­tin­gent makes for a long day mak­ing your arrival time in Seat­tle lat­er in the evening, often 9 – 10 pm.

Note on Itin­er­ary: Although we do our very best to fol­low the sched­ule list­ed, the very nature of climb­ing in an alpine envi­ron­ment requires flex­i­bil­i­ty. This itin­er­ary is sub­ject to change due to inclement weath­er, unsafe route con­di­tions, and oth­er rea­sons beyond our control.