9,127’, Nooksack Grade II-III Ice Reference & Data • • • • Jurisdiction: North Cascades National Park • Ranger Station: Glacier Visitor Center / 360-599-2714 • Equipment: Ice axe, crampons, ice screws, pickets. • USGS Maps: Mt Shuksan, Shuksan Arm • Beckey: Cascade Alpine Guide III, 2nd Edition, pp 67-70. • Other ref: Selected Climbs in the Cascades, pp. 208-213. Alpine Select, pp 348-349 Time Elevation gain/loss Mileage • Seattle to TH 3.5 hrs 3,000’ 145 • TH to Camp 4 hrs + 2,500’ • Camp to Summit 6-8 hrs + 3,600’ • Summit to Cars 8-12 hrs - 6,100’ Approach • • • • • • • • • • • Drive N on I-5 to Bellingham exit 255. Take the Mt. Baker Highway 542 E 33.8 miles to Glacier and obtain permit at Ranger Station. Continue 13 miles past Glacier to Nooksack River Bridge. Continue driving 5 miles to hairpin corner at 3,500’, two miles from Mt. Baker Ski Area. Turn left at hairpin corner onto spur logging road (White Salmon Road 3075, marked, not at its junction with the Mt Baker Highway, but at its last switchback/junction). Follow to its end above White Salmon Creek. Heavy brush encroaches on both sides of the road for the last mile or two, leaving scratchy vehicle sides. A faint path with some flagging continues through road bed brush for several hundred yards before dropping down faintly from the roadbed with sporadic flagging and making its way over to a more open swath and dropping down to White Salmon Creek. Hike up brushy valley, then ascend eastward up timbered slopes to open areas along ridge crest. Good bivy spots are located at 5,500’ where ridge meets North Face. Climbing Route • • • • • From bivy, traverse left on hanging glacier above Price Lake and under upper hanging glacier perched above first rock barrier. After 500’, climb to right up firn and ice finger west of upper hanging glacier. Especially in early season, do not go far left onto North Face where avalanches frequently occur. Continue steeply up North Face to shoulder NE of summit pyramid. After midseason, route can be very broken and schrund at shoulder quite large. From top of shoulder, traverse ice plateau around east side of summit pyramid and finish climb by standard route to summit. Descent • • • • • • • • • • • Descend via Fisher Chimneys and Lake Ann Trail to Mt. Baker Ski Area. Alternately, descend the White Salmon Glacier for a return to the cars. Comments • • • • • • • • • Leaving a second vehicle at the Mt. Baker Ski Area shortens the descent. Some parties prefer to camp a second night above Fisher Chimneys or at Lake Ann. Descent can also be made via White Salmon Glacier or Sulphide Glacier, although the latter requires a very long car shuttle.

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