Mount Shuksan/Fisher Chimneys

July 18-19, 2015. Our party of six set out from the Lake Ann trailhead at 9:45 a.m. We cruised up the trail and had no navigation problems. Before the climb we had studied photographs of the route, knowing that the entrance to the upper chimneys is not obvious. There was no snow until above the chimneys.

We reached the top of Winnie's Slide and set up camp just after 2:30 p.m. There was running water coming off of the Upper Curtis glacier. Two of our party roped up and scouted the route that we would take the next morning. The challenges were a short stretch of ice getting onto the glacier and a snow bridge across a large crevasse. (Once the snow bridge melts out the route will be much more difficult.)

After a spectacular sunset and starry night we set off at 4:00 a.m. Once past the snow bridge and on top of the Upper Curtis glacier the route was straightforward. Starting up the summit pyramid we avoided the snow finger leading into the central gully and climbed up an adjacent ridge. The climbing became more difficult about half-way up so we traversed into the gully where we a met large party of Mountaineers, who had climbed via the Sulphide Glacier route, as they rappelled the descent. They graciously let us climb through and we arrived at the summit at 7:00 a.m. The weather was sunny and warm with great views in every direction.

After an extended stay on the summit we headed down. With our two 30 m ropes we rappelled the top and bottom sections of the gully and downclimbed the remainder. When descending Hell's Highway we placed three pickets for protection. After packing up camp we continued our descent. We downclimbed Winnie's Slide and all of the chimneys except for the dihedral pitch which we rappelled. The remainder of the hike out was long and hot. We were back at the cars by 4:30 p.m. What a great climb!