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[TR] Mt. Stuart Circumnavigation - 4/13/2008


telemarker

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Trip: Mt. Stuart Circumnavigation -

 

Date: 4/14/2008

 

Trip Report:

I am blessed with a bad memory. It has allowed me to partake of some excellent ski tours this year, most of which have been guarded by mind-numbing road slogs. Yesterday's tour was no different. My friend Adam and I mulled a couple options over and finally decided on a circumnavigation of Mt. Stuart by way of the Sherpa Glacier, and out through Stuart Lake.

 

We started walking from the bridge creek C.G. by 4am. There now is roughly two miles of dry road to hike before you encounter consistent snow for skinning.

 

The forecast was for some weather to be moving in, but we encountered mild temps and cloudless skies.

 

Familiar shot of Stuart

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We reached mountaineer's basin by 9am, aided by multiple skin tracks to the basin.

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We spotted Sky and Co's turns coming down from the morain below the ICG.

The snow up the Sherpa was variable, from refrozen corn to styro-powder up high. We were able to skin up to the schrund, then from there boot it to the top.

 

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The views weren't that bad either. Looking down valley to the Icicle

 

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Eight Mile Mountain

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Adam booting near the top.

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Adam is an endurance freak, and he broke trail the whole day. But hey, how can I break if I can't catch up in the first place? We emerged from the top of the Sherpa, then traversed over to the top of the Cascadian.

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Looking back East.

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The top of the couloir was glop interspersed with the previous day's rather large point-release slides. But the snow got much better the further down we skied.

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Forgive the tilt.

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We started our traverse to Stuart Pass at about the 4,000 foot level, reaching it by around 5pm. On the traverse, we crossed countless debris from recent large slides that would have made this tour suicide on Saturday. The clouds started moving in, and the wind kicked up, a welcome relief from the blazing sun and stagnant air.

Adam and Ingalls Peak

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Stuart Pass, or above it at the summer entrance to the West face of Stuart.

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We ate a brief lunch, skied 300 feet into the basin, traversed and booted up to Goat Pass, eyeing an incredible slope down to Stuart Lake. We were a bit dismayed by the highmarking just below goat pass, and the highmarking in the Ingalls Lake basin area. Isn't this area off-limits to machines?

Skinning over to Goat Pass.

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Goat Pass, checking out the descent to Stuart Lake below.

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The slope to Stuart Lake was consistent, the snow soft and very turnable, and we enjoyed incredible fall-line skiing all the way down to the snowed-over marsh.

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Adam on the deproach, Goat Pass and our descent above his left shoulder.

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We reached Stuart Lake in fading light, with minor bushwacking.

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From there, we eventually reached the Colchuck Lake turnoff, and the icy luge run down the trail back to the road. The two miles of road walking was the crux of the day for me. We hit the car by around 10.45pm, and were greeted by Adam's PBR's, both of us pretty content about the day's tour, which according to Adam's watch/altimeter was a bit over 10,000 vf day.

 

Parting shot of Stuart

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Edited by telemarker
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Yeah, wasn't that a huge wet slide I cut below the false summit? Good thing I knew it was coming....

 

Wow. So, we saw a HUGE slide near the bottom of the Cascadian. You're saying that was set off from your turns down the false summit. Damn! That must have made quite a racket. The debris made an interesting pattern in the runout. We took a few photos...

 

Nice job on your descent! I'm jealous.

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