Spent the weekend family camping at Baker Lake with longtime friends. After a two-day taper of paddleboarding and chasing our kids around on bikes, I was ready for a mountain run. My running partners, Cy & Niles, recommended I check out Mt. Shuksan and go for the FKT (which they set a few years ago). It went something like this:
Stinging nettles bend into the trail, energizing the quads. I startle robins, who fly off with fat pink salmon berries in their beaks. At the NPS marker I run into a group who I used to volunteer with at Chelan Co. Mountain Rescue. After a quick chat, I settle back into the rhythm of breathing and upwards movement. I stop and fill my flask in the meltwater of the Sulphide Glacier. The snow atop the glacier is moosh. Not great for going up, but should be perfect for downhill running. The route on the glacier is mellow and crosses a few patches of exposed ice and small crevasses. The smell of sulphur fills my nose as I leave the snow. At the summit pyramid I climb to the left of the gulley to avoid rockfall from a group rappelling down the middle. I pull up on a ledge of smooth green rock to find myself inches from a gray-crowned rosy finch. It hops and tucks its wings, darting across the immense north face of Shuksan. I reach the top in 2:10. On the descent I pass another runner on the exposed grey ice. I step aside as they move quickly by with crampons over their running shoes. Further down I again stop to chat briefly with my Wenatchee-area neighbors. Another stop for filtering water and then back to bare trail. I catch my toe on a root or rock hidden by the huckleberry bushes growing over the trail. The most dangerous part of the run may be here in the forest. The last couple of miles ends with fast running as the trail turns into an old roadbed. Back to TH in ~3:20