My first climb of the year ... was attempting to climb the Fisher Chimney route to Shuksan. The crew was cool ... given I haven't climbed with any of them but Ian. I felt great and the weather was just too welcoming.
From parking lot to Lake Ann trailhead, it was uneventually except a few fallen trees and patches of snow. But at the trailhead, we knew we missed to get a climbing permit, technically a overnight camping for staying in the North Cascades NP, because top of Chimney is inside the National Park boundary.
It was unbelievable that Lake Ann was still completely frozen at this time of year. From there we entered into the unknown to find the bottom entrance of the chimneys. A few uphills and turns and off a few patches of snow. We found the green arrows.
Yes. This is the Fisher Chimneys.
Climbing the Chimneys was harder than I thought, mostly because everyone has a heavy pack, and there are sections that are
very exposed without any protection. But without looking down, we climbed and climbed and climbed with our 4 limbs. We reached
the top after 2.5 hours of spider-man crawling.
As we stepped off the chimneys and onto the glacier, a moment of celebration was felt by everyone that we did the hard part. Then
came 2 park rangers, greeting us with a false welcome, and later told us that because we didnt have a permit, we were not allowed to climb. Then the story evolved to become a "The only option for us is to go down immediately, so that we can still enjoy the weekend."
Well, there were emotions and frustrations among us, but after all, we went down to have another awesome experience. We downclimbed for about an hour in diminishing light. Everyone was brave and finally we had to stop at a ledge with trees and
made a bivouac for ourselves in the dark. The good thing is we had wine, cheese, music ... and a sliding bed.
The crew ...
Yes, first task was to bushwack through this!
Why's Emily carrying Ken's pack ? Because Ken has no hip !
There is a Lake Ann here ... just that it's still frozen in Sept.
We are going climb up there
Sara said, 'Are you sure Nemo is here ?
Baker is watching us ...
Follow this ... and you'll be free
Just dont fall .. that's all.
Trucking along ....
Found the lost kid !!
Gotta doucment this ....
Up and up ....
First downclimb of the day to get off the Chimney ....
HI, MY NAME IS SHADLE !!
On top of the Chimneys
You can feel the disappointment from this picture
Sun was setting ... as we going down ...
Dinner @ the bivouac
Trying to sleep @ the bivouac
Emily discovered that alcohol can solve a lot of problems ...
Sleeping @ the bivouac
Waking up to see Baker from the bivouac
Going down ... back to where we came from
Sara still had her smile
Ops, may be not !
With this anchor, we were down climbing ...
I was rappelling down here
My favorite pic of this trip
Finally back to the snow patch ...
3 climbers .... you see that ?
At least we had Sam smiling ....
The long-haired treeling lady was showing off her climbing skills.
Leave me alone ! I dont give a damn !
Ninja
Gunslinger
Bear
Yes this is the only ice hole on Lake Ann in SEPTEMBER 2011
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