Distance: 13.7 mi.
Elevation Gain: 7600 ft.
Although I really wanted to do Mount Shuksan, the Fisher Chimneys route wasn’t necessarily my preference since it’s considered the more challenging and technical route. However, Nancy was really interested in this route and convinced me with the enticing high camp. Craig was also interested to do Shuksan by a different route since he had done the Sulphide Glacier route previously. We had no idea how to get a camping permit in the time of COVID so Craig called the ranger station and they said to call back as soon as they opened (7 AM) the day before we wanted to camp. So Craig left a message right at 7 AM Friday and almost 2 hours later they called back and said he got the permit! We have no idea if we were lucky or if there were several remaining permits left behind.
We weren’t in a huge rush on day one so we left Seattle at 7 AM and started hiking around 10 AM. The main parking lot was full so we parked in the overflow lot. The road was closed just before Artist Point (at the Terminal Lake trailhead) so we had to hike on a trail just west of the road to the actual Lake Ann trailhead.
After starting on the Pacific Northwest Trail it unfortunately lost elevation for about 700 feet before we began climbing again. We reached a mild snow slope west of Lake Ann and climbed it northeast until we gained a ridge and had a view of the lake, which was still almost completely frozen over.
We got back on dry trail and continued east until we began switchbacking up the slope below the Fisher Chimneys. When we reached the chimneys there was one more group climbing ahead of us and another group rappelling down the soggy slab section. So Nancy and I switched into our mountaineering boots from trail runners and we had a snack to let the group ahead of us have a little space.
We remained about one pitch behind them throughout the climb and didn’t have any issues with rockfall. We had another group about one pitch behind us also. It’s not surprising that things quickly became bottlenecked on the chimneys even though we barely saw anyone on trail.
After the slab pitch we hiked through a forested section, then crossed some talus and finally traversed a snow slope to the main chimneys. The snow slope ended with stairs cut into a moat so we could continue on dry ground. From here the scrambling was steeper and fairly exposed in places but the rock was pretty solid (not because it was inherently good but because it was well-traveled). There were generally good holds to be found throughout. For “The Wall” we climbed out on the arete, which had the best holds but was also very exposed.
We had more slabby scrambling throughout the chimneys. There was some snow remaining in the main chimneys, but we could scramble 3rd class to the left of it all the way to the top of the ridge. After crossing the ridge we got onto snow slope north of the ridge for our final uphilll to camp.
We waited at the lower bivy sites with the party ahead of us. They were deciding whether to set up camp or climb higher and they had sent scouts up the steep snow slope above. It turned out that the above sites were mostly full so we all settled down for the evening where we were. We found one tiny trickle of water on the rocks above camp and filled up about 6 liters over 30 minutes or so. We had dinner and cracked open a beer and settled in for the amazing sunset. This was one of my best campsites in Washington!
We had read from previous trip reports that the summit block can get very crowded because the rappel route overlaps with a lot of the climbing route. We decided that waking up at 1 or 2 or 3 AM wouldn’t make much of a difference for our quality of life so we decided to get up at 2 AM, thinking that we would have enough light for climbing safely by the time we reached the summit block.
We got hiking at 2:30 AM and climbed Winnie’s Slide in good kick steps from the previous day. Due to the warm night, the snow was still fairly soft. At the top of the steep snow slope we tried not to trample on folks bivying right near the route and then we got roped up to cross Upper Curtis Glacier. The only open crevasse we crossed was just after camp.
We did a mostly flat traverse to the right (south) and then actually downclimbed a little bit before climbing back toward Hell’s Highway. This snowslope was even steeper and longer than Winnie’s Slide but once again we had nice steps from the previous day to follow and there is a pretty safe runout. After Hell’s Highway we turned to the left (northeast) to begin climbing the Suphide Glacier toward the summit.
The snow was moderately steep below the pyramid and we found a day-old snowboarding track that was easy to travel in because it was nice and firm and not quite so punchy as the surrounding snow…so thanks Saturday snowboarder!
We reached a small rock outcropping and then got back on snow briefly. Then we did an awkward climb up another chunky rock with a crack on the left. I did a beached whale move on the right while Craig and Nancy wedged themselves in the large crack to get up. After this there was another brief steeper snow section with good steps and then we were back on rock. By this point we had reached the only group that was ahead of us and they let us pass on a tricky steeper scramble section.
The section had a crack on both the left and right and I tried wedging one foot into both sides but my feet kept sliding down and I couldn’t quite reach any good handhold above. (Short people problems!) Craig ended up giving me a good butt boost so I could reach a handhold. The climbing was moderately steep but not too exposed, and then we reached another short snow section. We climbed to the right from here but learned later that we should have gone left. Craig tried climbing the slab above but the holds were pretty thin, and meanwhile Nancy scouted up to the right. She ended up directly on the southeast ridge of Shuksan, which is a 5.3 climbing route. Woopsie! Luckily we had brought gear for just this, so Nancy decided to lead. She only ended up placing one 0.5 cam and a nut on the entire final pitch of the ridge. Then she belayed Craig and I from above. We were the first to reach the summit for the day at 6:30 AM.
The party just behind us did the easier scramble route and arrived on the summit a few minutes later. We let them enjoy the summit while we began our rappel, happy that we wouldn’t have to deal with any rappel logjam. We did five rappels just to the west of the main climbing route and eventually had to cross three or four parties who were all scrambling the summit block, so we were happy with our decision to wake up at an unseemly hour. (One of the groups behind us spoke Mandarin and, not knowing I speak a little, said “Oh, those are the ones that woke up super early” when they passed us 😋).
After our rappels we pulled out ice axes to cross that steeper snow slope at the beginning of our climb, then we had to reverse-beach whale the awkward first scramble move. From there we were pretty much on snow continuously back to camp. We decided to face inward for downclimbing Hell’s Highway and Winnie’s Slide, but at least one brave soul did Hell’s Highways as a glissade 😳. In the daylight, we noticed that were a few more open crevasses on Upper Curtis Glacier but they were easy to avoid.
When we got back to camp we ate lunch and quickly broke down camp. We still had a long way back to the car. We removed crampons for the one remaining snow slope and then began the tedious downclimb of Fisher Chimneys. The footholds were generally pretty easy to find and we made quick work of the descent, choosing only to rappel “The Wall” and downclimb everything else. The bottom slabs were actually a bit spicy because the creek was overflowing onto the rock, so we were stoked to be done with the scrambly bits.
We pulled out ice axes for the on-again-off-again snow traverse, then finally stashed our axes and switched to trail runners (yes!) for the dry trail. There was one more large snow patch above Lake Ann that we were able to plunge step, and then we just had the remaining trail which…was…ALL UPHILL! Why’d we do this to ourselves?! It went fine despite some blisters and cursing and we reached our cars at 4:45 PM.
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Recommended brew: Bruno the Baby Beer Cat by Fat Orange Cat Brew Co.
Gear Used:
- Backpacking tent (Craig and Vanessa)
- Bivy (Nancy)
- Gaiters
- Glacier glasses
- GPS
- Harness
- Helmet
- Ice screw (not used)
- Mountaineering boots
- Overnight pack
- Pickets x2
- Prusiks
- 60 m half-rope
- Sleeping pad
- Steel crampons
- Steel ice axe
- Summer sleeping bag
- Stove
- Few small to mid-sized and tricams, 0.5 cam, small nuts, slings
- Trail runners (Nancy and Vanessa)
- Trekking poles
- Ursack
- Water drops/filter
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