Matt Carter - Alpine Skills
Mt Shuksan- July 14-16, 2007
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| As a recent transplant from Colorado, Matt
Carter contacted NCMG to get some Alpine skills training. Matt
joined Larry for 3 days of skills work to be completed with
a summit attempt on Mt Shuksan. This is normally a very short
amount of time for a skills course like this, though having
one on one instruction allows a climber to progress at a much
faster rate than in a large group course. Not to mention that
Matt was extremely fit and a quick study. |
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| After hiking up the Shannon Ridge trail,
the climbers encountered snow at about 4500'. They took
a short break on the ridge with Mt Baker looming large
in the distance. |
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| We spent several hours on basic snow
climbing skills and self arrest techniques before making
a camp here at 5500', well below the glacier. |
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| The following day was cloudy and socked
in. We spent most of the day working on more skills near
our camp. Here Matt practices the French technique of
cramponing. |
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| We played around with a variety of snow
and ice climbing techniques on the slopes nearby. Here
Matt uses pied troiseme with his ice axe in piolet ancre
position. |
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| With the Sulphide glacier completely
socked in a whiteout, we chose to set up a crevasse rescue
scenario on a cornice not too far from camp. Here Matt
has arrested the fall and is getting ready to build an
anchor and transfer the load. |
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| We awoke early the next morning and left
our camp at 4:30 am to make a bid on the summit of Shuksan.
At about 5:15 we were treated to this sunrise. |
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| Higher on the Sulphide glacier, we made
our way up toward the summit pyramid. You can see Baker
lake in the background and in the far distance Mt Ranier. |
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| The summit pyramid of Mt Shuksan. The
standard route climbs a gully just right of center. We
chose for a more challenging and aesthetic route by climbing
the Southeast ridge to the summit. This is the right hand
skyline in this photo. |
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| We took a short break and cached our
ski poles below the summit pyramid. It was turning into
a beautiful day and we had the mountain all to ourselves.
Here Matt poses with the North Cascades in the background. |
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| The climbing on the Southeast ridge is
mostly 4th and low 5th class on generally solid rock.
It is made slightly more challenging by climbing in mountain
boots and with packs on. |
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| Matt had some rock climbing in his background
and had no trouble with the exposed climbing on the ridge. |
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| Just below the top there a few sections
of steeper rock to add to the spice of the climb. |
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| We took a lunch break on the summit with
great views while some lower clouds rolled in around the
nearby mountains. |
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| While descending the summit pyramid we
noticed an army sized party heading our way. |
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| Over 20 people approached the summit
pyramid for what had to be one of the largest assaults
on Mt Shuksan. It turned out that they were 2 parties
of 12 that met up on the upper glacier. While unclear
as to how they would manage the summit climb with so many
people and the loose rock of the central gully, Matt and
I descended the Sulphide glacier all the more convinced
of the importance of the alpine start and the beauty of
low ratio climbing. |
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