Mount Shuksan/Sulphide Glacier

July 9-10. Team of 9 set off from Shannon Ridge TH at about 10am on Wednesday to warm weather and clear skies. There are some blowdowns and a little bushwhacking required to get up to the ridge, but is possible to stay on the trail with careful routefinding. Follow the creek and watch for pink flagging in the trees. Solid snow from the ridge top onward.
The camp on the edge of the glacier has one tent spot melted out. The toilet is not yet melted out. Two of our party bivied in the melted out area, the rest camped on snow. Plenty of running water at camp.
4.5 hours from TH to camp.
Awoke at 2am to clear skies and a steady 15mph wind. Roped up and on our way at 3:15. Cool temps and perfect hard snow for crampons.
The summit pyramid gully is still over half snow filled. There were good steps already kicked in. One team set two pickets to protect the snow slope, and climbed part way up still roped up. The rest uproped and scrambled. Eventually all teams scrambled uproped the rest of the way to the summit.
Wind died down as the sun came up and it was a beautiful warm day with outstanding views.
The pyramid looks intimidating from far away with the snow in the gully, but once you get closer, the route is obvious and the going is not too bad.
All team members reached the summit by 8:30am.
Some members felt comfortable downclimbing, the rest rappelled. We reached the final snow slope with 4 rappels. The gully has many established rap stations, but there is a little bit of downclimbing or traversing between stations. It takes a full rope length (we rapped on a single strand, double rope rappel would work too.) between the 1st station and the 2nd one.
One other party of 4 began ascending the gully as we were descending. They had come up Fisher Chimneys, but no other teams on the Sulphide route that day.
Reached the base of the pyramid by 11am, back to basecamp by noon.
Departed camp by 1:30.
We briefly lost the trail through the blowdowns on the descent. A few minutes of bushwhacking got us back on track. Apparently some parties have lost their way here and missed the switchbacks on the trail and gotten lost, so be careful.
We reached the trailhead at 4pm, and the team enjoyed some water melon and a quick dip in Baker Lake was very refreshing.