So this past weekend was our team’s graduation climb! Devin chose Mt. Shuksan for the objective, and the students put together all the skills they learned to get us to the summit via the Sulphide Glacier route!

A few months ago, I had hiked to Artist and Huntoon Point with Tim and Paula, which provided incredible views of Shuksan. I was freaking stoked to be climbing it now!!!

^check out the summit pyramid!!!

The route is pretty straight forward… On day 1, you start from the Shannon Ridge Trailhead (at 2550-ft) and head up the trail. You eventually hit snow, gain a ridge, go through a pass, and then you head North towards the Sulphide Glacier. Once on there glacier, you keep to the left and then you’ll get to a series of camps. We opted for a high camp at ~7000-ft.

It was an especially hot weekend, so we planned to move slowly to gain the 4500-ft to camp…

So here you go! Please enjoy this series of photos of us walking uphill!

^We sought shelter from the sun frequently…

One of the many hills!

The route provided great views of Mt. Baker, where another BoeAlps team was also climbing!

Here we have have an excellent example of mountaineering’s latest fashion and technology. The High Performance Sombrero. Notice how his entire face is shaded from the brutal sun. The straw weave is naturally moisture wicking and water resistant. Meanwhile, the red rim provides a nice stay-out zone, so other folks know when they’re too close!

^see how KJ keeps her distance? It just naturally works! or maybe Ian forgot his deodorant… Regardless, D. Trump does not approve of this product.

Apparently Natalie enjoys suffering more than KJ…

On the other side of the pass, heading towards Sulphide Glacier

^the HP Sombrero also doubles as an excellent vessel for campsite nachos

…slowly gaining elevation

Looking back at the pass…

A Study in Walking Uphill #23

Losing some elevation, and then getting it back! woo!

Everytime I see skiers on the way down, I get extremely jealous…

A Study in Walking Uphill #56

A Study in Walking Uphill #98

We started stepping out more frequently for short rest breaks

OH HEY! A glacier!

We ran across a group of eight from the Seattle Mountaineers. They arrived to the low camp pretty early, so we decided to keep moving towards the high camp. It turns out Alex (from my BoeAlps team last year) was part of this group! We had a nice lil chat, and he was even sportin’ his BoeAlps shirt!!

These guys were just chilling and milling about. Slightly jelly about that.

Did I mention there were copious views of Baker?

A Study in Walking Uphill #136

A Study on Suffering #49

Our campsite!

The rest of the team moving up the last hill before camp!

We setup camp quickly, and had a lovely view of Baker and the sunset during dinner!!!

Chillin’ at camp!

After dinner, Devin went to get a better view.

Which made for a decent pano!

Selfie time

Around 9:30, we all got into our tents to nap before our alpine start