"Playin' hooky to get the Nookie" - A three day circuit of the Nooksack Glacier cirque.
Peaks climbed: Mt. Shuksan (9,131ft.), Icy Peak (7,062ft.), Ruth Mtn. (7,115ft.)
Who: Lowell Skoog, Jason Hummel, Josh Hummel, Sky Sjue and Sam Avaiusini
April 2-4, 2004
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Day 1: I picked Lowell up just before 3am and we swooped down to Sky's place where the Hummels had just arrived. As this was our first trip with Lowell, brief introductions were made and we were soon on the road. We parked the Exploder about 2.5 miles from the Hannegan Pass trail head and I promptly got my Tahoe stuck while backing up to turn around. About 10 minutes of teamwork led to extrication and we were all piled in my rig for the 30 minute shuttle to our drop-in point at Mt. Baker Ski Area. By about 7:30 we were skinning towards Chair 8 and then we made a descending traverse to White Salmon Creek. This was everyone's first time up the White Salmon, but Lowell had down climbed it some years ago, so he led the way (he does a lot of that!). Around 12:30, we were climbing Winnies Slide:
By now the winds have picked up considerably and it is blowing ice crystals in our face as we're climbing Hell's Highway to access the Sulphide Glacier:
Around 3pm, we arrived at 8,100ft. and what would become the site of the most primo snow cave near the margin of the Sulphide and the Crystal Glaciers. About 3 hours of steady work and we had carved out an almost 100 square-foot studio apartment in the sky...Hey, but the rent was cheap!
Jason and Josh pitched their tent outside the servant's entrance of our cave and soon we were all fast asleep after hearty meals. Would the weather be this spectacular tomorrow?
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