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Basic Glacier Climb - Mount Shuksan/Sulphide Glacier

Successful climb of Mt Shuksan in good conditions.

Karl Themer Karl Themer
July 28, 2025
  • Road rough but passable

  • The final 5.5 miles of forest road is rough with many potholes and makes for slow going but the trailhead is reachable for most vehicles.  The trail is in good shape, no major blowdowns although it is slightly overgrown in some places.  The snow approach from 5400' to 6400' is free of major obstacles but can be tricky with reduced visibility, mapping apps were helpful here.  Camp at 6400' is on a large flat plateau and is a good spot from which to start for the summit.  The upper glacier is mellow with only a few small crevasses that are easily stepped over.  The summit block is good when dry, a few spots with small loose rocks so care is advised.  There is a steep snow patch to traverse on the summit block from climber's right to left.  One single rap using a 60 m rope from about halfway down the summit block allows climbers to avoid down-climbing the steepest steps.

We started from the TH at 9:30 AM and hiked up the trail in comfortable temps but with limited visibility once we were up on the snow.  It took 4.5 hours to find camp on a large flat plateau at 6400'.  The trail is on a good grade.  Some roots but overall good hiking.  Some sections of the trail were buggy.  Mapping apps on our phones made it possible to find the camping spot after we had deviated a bit from our intended approach.  We followed the sound of running water over the rocks.  Three members of the team filled water bottles for everybody while others built camp.  We had occasional views but for most of day one we were in thick clouds.

We departed camp at 4:15 AM.  We had much better visibility on day two.  The upper glacier (climber's left side) is a gentle grade with very few crevasses near the top, easy going.  We arrived at the base of the summit block at 7:00.  We could see two small teams ahead of us and more teams coming up the glacier behind us.  On the summit block I scouted ahead following rap stations but I found myself on the SE ridge which was not our intended route so I backtracked about 100'.  We learned that to find the correct gully we would need to traverse across a steep snow patch which had an existing track.  One of the leads had to keep an eye on a loose block at the start of this traverse.  There are rap stations everywhere so it is important to not just follow them blindly.  The scrambling is never more than 3rd class and is mostly clean but a few spots have small loose rocks so care is needed with a large group such as ours (ten).  A few short steeper steps were encountered on the first half of the summit block; higher up the grade is gentler.  Everyone arrived at the top around 8:30 or shortly thereafter.  We enjoyed great views and nice weather.   Then we carefully down-climbed about half of the summit block before finding a good rap anchor on climber's right which I had noticed on the way up.  A single 60 m rappel here allowed us to rap past two steeper steps on the way down.  Then we set up a hand line to protect the snow patch before regrouping back on the glacier.  The uppermost slope of the glacier is steeper but we had good steps.  Then one hour of easy glacier walking back to camp.  We packed up and left camp around 2:00 PM and returned to the TH around 5:00 PM.  Dinner in Birdsview on the way home.  Great team and great trip.