TR: Cacade Slayage: Shuksan, West Face Descent. Where's that? Read all about it!

[powdherb]

After a few weeks of hacking yellow spittle all over the place because of bar-related dance-floor cough (B.R.D.C) or strept throat, I was itching to get back at the line that we originally intended to ski when we skied "Curtis Blow" on Mt. Shuksan a few weeks ago.

This weekend, Sky told me he would hold my hand and help me ski Triple Couloirs up on Colchuck. I declined to ski this heinously-exposed, rappel infested, and impossibly-gnarly line. However, when fellow Cascade assassin Jason Hummel showed interest in the west face line the was last attempted by him back in 1999, I just had to party.

Unfortunately, the ultimate dilemma presented itself: my roomates and I were slated to throw a faux wedding and I was to be the ring bearer (which comically, was a contraceptive ring). Obviously there was no way I could miss this event, so I had to do what I always do: oblitterate the dance floor with my infinite flex and slay within 24 hrs. In the end, the wedding provided ample laughs as well as hot dance-floor action and beautiful sunsets with hot babez.



Like 3 hours later I was here:


Skiers: Myself ( Davide De Masi ), Paul Kimbrough, Jason Hummel, Ryan Carter
While this TR is boarderline NSR at this point, I'll get to the meat. The West Face is accessed from the upper Sulphide Glacier and provides a 4200 foot descent that begins as a 35-38 degree snofield in the upper reaches and quickly funnels about 1500 down into a 40+ degree couloir. As it faces West and is in the Cascades, we got extremely lucky to not have encountered heinous conditions due to the lack of nightly freeze that night.

We started out on Sat around noon and Jason, Paul, and I camped near lake Anne in a nice blow hole. Miraculously, Ryan (facedeep) met us around 9pm at our campsite after a long day of kicking little children off ropeswings and into lava. We hung out and skied some lines that evening as shitty weather approached.


We thought for sure the line was going to be totally-fucked-waist-deep-isothermal-wallow-fest but it was fine, with good snow for about 2000 feet below the summit.


Nearing the sulphide glacier.


Though our goal was to simply ski this face, we ended skinning up to the base of the summit pyramid climb and skiing from there.

The sulphide.


Summit pyramid, with weather getting even shitter.



Jason skiing down from our high point.


Great turns high up on the face.








The lower section was the crux of the climb. It contained about 1500 feet of steep couloirs.



As we made our terrible 2k vertical deproach through 2 day old unfrozen mank, it started to rain on us right after we skied off chair back to the vehicle. Tent to Car: 12 hours. And I'm done.

Jason should have many more good pics, especially of the lower section... I was too busy watching massive wetslides come down all over the place to take any pictures. Good day out there.

[cascadianwarrior]

Strong work! As always, I'm looking forward to seeing some of Jason's photos.

[edwin33]

wow, very nice

[lax]

FKNA raaaaad. PNW uber alles. is that "widowmaker" in the background! SIIIIIICK baker is pretty lame eh?

[prestonf]

Sweet.

We were up by Colchuck on sat. (too late, bailed on nbc and did the glacier), and when we got down a couple of people asked if we saw their friend skiing the triple couloirs. Umm, no, we looked and would have noticed that . It was nice up there, though.

Good job on shuksan.

[hop]

That's not widowmaker, that's actually Utah. Everyone should ski in Utah.

(it really is not widowmaker)

[wanghoeby]

I'm digging this one. Nice work.

[facedeep]

She was sick today and I am fucking tired. Sick shot of Pauly. Need to steal your cam cord tomorrow night.

[jwolter7]

You guys suck, again.

Now that school is done for Dave and Ryan, get a job so you can also get fat, slow,and with rubber legs like the rest of the world.

Good stuff, again. The Northwest rules. Good seeing you guys again at the kamp k2 poach.

[jon turner]

Shuksan is a sweet mountain. That's some nice work there.

[alto]

Your commentary has left me speechless. Bravo, sir. Bravo.

[alto]

BUT. What about the promised straightline off the summit pyramid?

[_Aaron_]

I'm digging this one. Nice work.

Seconded. That pic is money.

[telepow]

Serious stokage for a rainy VT monday morning. Thank you

[Dug]

Sweetness.

[Lani]

Umm, no, we looked and would have noticed that .

Unless said skiers were using invisible ninja steeze.

[brown9]

Unless said skiers were using invisible ninja steeze.

You can't be serious.

BUT. What about the promised straightline off the summit pyramid?

I'm thinking of heading up to try and snag that in a few more weeks when the road melts out a little closer to the sulphide TH. It's pretty narrow though...

[powdherb]

You sick bastard. I trust you got your ski?
[QUOTE=Lani;1821853]Unless said skiers were using invisible ninja steeze.

[Lani]

No, we bailed. I just wanted to throw a screwball at your TR since you insisted on skiing a line I had shown you. Glad you did it with Jason, though. He and that line go way back.

Want to go ski it again when it's in proper condition? The true test of a route....

[SonnyBoy]

nizzle ..

[adimmen]

money shot

[Unemployed]

Good times guys!!! More stuff here:

http://www.cascadecrusades.org/SkiMo...008/wf2008.htm

A taste:

[jwolter7]

Bump, debump It's very French...

[Karl Stall]

fucking money

[Kellie]

fucking money

Agreed