Saw lots of these little guys hopping on the trail. I was trying to be careful not to smash them with my heavy plastic ski boots!
Doc and the spiffy gaitors he made himself.
Here is our sweet little campsite with a view. We stopped here on the first day, set up camp, then hiked up for a little bit of skiing on the slopes above.
Doc hiking up above camp the first day.
There is the summit of Shuksan in the far off distance across the Sulphide glacier. You can see the boottrack traversing across the snow in the near distance. It looks scary and steep from here! This is where we plan on going the second day. It turns out to be soft snow that is easy to cross in the first half, with the second half requiring an ice axe and careful steps.
This picture is to the left of the boot track from the previous picture. A lot of climbers have set up camp here.
Doc and I hanging out enjoying the view.
Baker Lake behind me.
Scott and Doc sitting on a rock. You can't beat this!
And then we get to ski down to our camp! This is actually a pretty fun slope.
Doc.
Still headed back to camp.
And dinner..
And beer!
Nice campsite.
Scott.
Doc's campsite.
Me.
Mt. Hagan?
Mt. Blum?
The next day, Scott takes off at 6:30 am, while Doc and I take a more leisurely breakfast with coffee. Here, Doc is traversing that steep part I was worried about, with me behind. Looks easy, huh!
It does get steeper though, with rocks and a cliff below. Great views!
We make it up there and find more campsites. Nice spot.
Gettin closer. Sulphide glacier meets the Crystal glacier on the right, very broken up with crevasses. Shuksan summit is still so far away! We are not climbing it today, so no rush.
Another view of the glacier.
We finally meet up with Scott. He had skied all the way to below the summit pyramid, and skied down to meet us.
We stop for lunch, and decide this will be it for the day. Time to start getting some turns in!
We can see Glacier Peak back there.
Doc getting some well earned turns in.
Doc and Scott. This snow has deep runnels all over it, and is not easy to ski.
It's still fun to be skiing though!!
Here is Scott carrying my skis for me over the tricky part! Thanks Scott!
We make it back to the notch, and Doc and Scott decide to ski the valley, and hike back up. I elect to hang out in the sun and eat some more.
After heading back to camp and packing up, we're back on the trail headed to the car. The lower we get, the hotter it gets! Our clunky boots are feeling heavy. We make it back and take a swim in Baker Lake. Nice!
"We came all this way to ski this sxxt?" Skiing up at Mt. Shuksan. Scott and Doc. Don't turn up the sound if you are at work! You know Doc!
