We had hours of daylight left to study the peak and route possiblilties from camp. And to watch clouds build around it. We kept telling ourselves it wasn't going to be as steep as it looked. Thus was born our mantra, "Foreshortened is forewarned."

The large hump in the ridge below the tower (just below & right of the photo's center) is the gateway to Mount Shuksan's Price Glacier route. It may also provide a high camp for an earlier start on the tower. We considered moving to it, but our fatigue and uncertainty about the bergschrunds and the traverse to the couloir weighed against it.