Mount Shuksan is a

glaciated A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

in the

North Cascades National Park North Cascades National Park is an American national park in the state of Washington. At more than , it is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Complex. North Cascades National Par ...

. Shuksan rises in

Whatcom County Whatcom County is a county located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Washington, bordered by the Canadian Lower Mainland (the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley Regional Districts of British Columbia) to the north, Okanogan ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

immediately to the east of

Mount Baker Mount Baker (Lummi: '; nok, Kw’eq Smaenit or '), also known as Koma Kulshan or simply Kulshan, is a active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington in the United States. Mount ...

, and south of the Canada–US border. The mountain's name ''Shuksan'' is derived from the

Lummi The Lummi ( ; Lummi: ''Xwlemi'' ; also known as Lhaq'temish (), or ''People of the Sea''), governed by the Lummi Nation, are a Native American tribe of the Coast Salish ethnolinguistic group. They are based in the coastal area of the Pacific N ...

word '' �éqsən', said to mean "high peak". The highest point on the mountain is a three-sided peak known as Summit Pyramid. The mountain is composed of Shuksan greenschist, oceanic

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

that was metamorphosed when the Easton

terrane In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and accreted or " sutured" to crust lying on another plate. The crustal block or fragment preserves its own ...

collided with the west coast of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, approximately 120 million years ago. The mountain is an eroded remnant of a thrust plate formed by the Easton collision. Mount Shuksan tarn

The

Mount Baker Highway State Route 542 (SR 542) is a State highways in Washington, state highway in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, serving Mount Baker in Whatcom County, Washington, Whatcom County. SR 542 travels east as the Mount Bak ...

, State Route 542, is kept open during the winter to support

Mt. Baker Ski Area Mt. Baker Ski Area is a ski resort in the Pacific Northwest, northwest United States, located in Whatcom County, Washington, at the end of Washington State Route 542, State Route 542. The base elevation is at , while the peak of the resort is at ...

. In late summer, the road to Artist Point allows visitors to travel a few miles higher for a closer view of the peak. Picture Lake is accessible on the highway and reflects the mountain, making it a popular site for photography.

Sulphide Creek Falls Sulphide Creek Falls is a tall, moderately large volume waterfall within North Cascades National Park in Washington state. The falls drop from Sulphide Lake (elevation ) on the southeast side of Mount Shuksan down a narrow flume-like canyon to ...

, one of the tallest waterfalls in North America, plunges off the southeastern flank of Mount Shuksan. There are four other tall waterfalls that spill off Mount Shuksan and neighboring Jagged Ridge and

Seahpo Peak Seahpo Peak is a subsidiary peak of Mount Shuksan, which rises in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located about east of the main peak of Shuksan and rises to about . It is located in North Cascades National Park and is part of the North Cas ...

, mostly sourced from small snowfields and glaciers. The traditional name of Mount Shuksan in the

Nooksack language The Nooksack language (''Lhéchalosem'', or ''Lhéchelesem'') is a Salishan language spoken by the Nooksack people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. It comes from the area now known as northwestern Washington (state) in Whatcom County, United Stat ...

is ''Shéqsan'' ("high foot") or ''Ch’ésqen'' ("golden eagle"). Both the Nooksack and

are indigenous tribes who have occupied the watersheds of the Nooksack Rivers and Lummi River, respectively. They are both federally recognized tribes in the United States. The first ascent of Mount Shuksan is usually attributed to

Asahel Curtis Asahel Curtis (1874–1941) was a photographer based in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. His career included documentation of the Klondike Gold Rush period in Seattle, natural landscapes in the Northwest, and infrastructure p ...

and W. Montelius Price on September 7, 1906. However, in a 1907 letter to the editor of the

Mazamas The Mazamas () is a mountaineering organization based in Portland, Oregon, United States, founded in 1894. Promotion of mountaineering The Mazamas has been an important part of the climbing community in the Pacific Northwest of the United States ...

club journal, C. E. Rusk attributed the first ascent to Joseph Morowits in 1897. He said that he himself would have attempted it in 1903 if he had not been sure that it had already been climbed.

Nearby mountains

Mount Triumph Mount Triumph is a summit in the North Cascades range of Washington state. Located approximately west-northwest of the town of Newhalem, it was named by Lage Wernstedt, a surveyor with the U.S. Forest Service. A significant peak in North Ca ...

* Mount Despair * Mount Terror * Mount Blum *

Church Mountain Church Mountain, also called Slieve Gad (), is the westernmost of the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland. It is high. At the summit are the remains of a large ancient cairn of pagan origin. This cairn was partially destroyed and a small building, ap ...

References

External links

* * Weather forecast
Mount Shuksan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shuksan, Mount Mountains of Washington (state) North Cascades of Washington (state) Mountains of Whatcom County, Washington North Cascades National Park