Sol Posted June 9, 2008 Posted June 9, 2008 Trip: Mt. Stuart - Ice Cliff Glacier Date: 6/8/2008 Trip Report: Well, I decided to take my own advice and give the ice cliff glacier route on Mt. Stuart a whirl. The Chris and I were amazed at the perfect conditions. Thunker neve from camp to the top of the couloir, them perfect wind-packed ice and snow to the summit. We thought the line was dramatic and highly alpine, with endless tool-swingin and front-pointing. There were two other parties of three below us on route, a good time was had by all. Props to team three for enduring all the ice and snowfall from above and for gettin-er-done in a day. She looked mighty uninviting the night before: Deja vu: The Ice Cliff: ] Boom! Topping out on the ice cliff: Upper couloir and the girth pillar: Towards the top of the couloir: Looking down at team three: Team two on the summit ridge: Summit views: Team three on the summit ridge: Team two starting the descent down the sherpa: It really was amazing how much the mountain had changed in 9 days. The snow and ice had improved alot and new snow had filled in the rocks significantly. Conditions won't get much better... Gear Notes: Tools and poons, 3-4 pickets, couple of screws, few cams and a few nuts. Quote
fenderfour Posted June 9, 2008 Posted June 9, 2008 We were the team of 3, Argus, myself and MadeInMontana. It was a great route. Nice to see you guys up there. Good job to team three. That would be a lot to get done in a day. Quote
JoshK Posted June 9, 2008 Posted June 9, 2008 Looks awesome. Is that picture titled "topping out on ice cliff" the shrund a hundred feet or so below you top out on the ridge? If so, that thing scared the living shit out of me going over it w/o a rope. My pathetic vertical wallow up and over it somehow worked without the thing collapsing. I yelled up for a rope immediately after that. O_O Quote
Chad_A Posted June 9, 2008 Posted June 9, 2008 Nice pics, I'd forgotten how pretty that route can be, especially with the new snow. Thanks for sharin' Quote
kevino Posted June 10, 2008 Posted June 10, 2008 We were the team of 3, Argus, myself and MadeInMontana. It was a great route. Nice to see you guys up there. Good job to team three. That would be a lot to get done in a day. good to know we had a cc party on stuart. me, matt cook and my friend david were team 3. GREAT day in the mountains - the route was in such good and fun conditions. I never realized how much of a bitch descending sherpa is - could be that we were just really tired. But then again I fell in a crevasse... Quote
kevino Posted June 10, 2008 Posted June 10, 2008 um on the lower part of sherpa. you know where that exposed rock was right before the slope dropped off a bunch? right in there. Only my legs punched through and matt pulled me out. good stuff. maybe i'll post a tr and talk about the ice and avalanches rained down on us. ha Quote
Jimmy J Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 I have a question. I've recently done my first ascent using Ulrich's up and then descended the False Summit down to the SE Couloir. I found the transition off the FS to be pretty steep and exposed in warm and soft conditions a couple weeks ago. My question is how do you traverse over to Sherpa Peak from the true summit to descend on it's glacier? Do I have to traverse the steep,slabby face with or without a snow cover, similar to what I did downclimbing to the SE? I guess I'm wondering, since I haven't seen any comments about the T. Summit to Sherpa traverse, is there a simple, less exposed route over to Sherpa to make the descent on Sherpa Glacier after coming up one of the North Face routes? Quote
moronbros Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 Nice TR. I have yet to climb this route and I've heard just about every description about this route. One thing I do know is that the snow this weekend was absolutely perfect in the area. I was over on Argonaut sitting on my ass belaying and I saw one of the groups of three descending toward Sherpa around noon thirty. It was like alpine television watching you tiny-ass dots scrawling around on the improbable slopes of that mountain. You get to talk to any of others? One of those groups of three was a Boealps group who are friends of mine. I heard they had just as good of a time up there as you guys did. Perfect styrofoam for kicking steps. Too bad I left my board at home. Argonaut's descent was shreddable about 2 weeks ago. Quote
fenderfour Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 Some pics from madeInMontana The Ice Cliff on Saturday Fenderfour and Argus in the morning MadeInMontana leading In the icefall Steep MadeInMontana (Blue Helmet) and Argus Topping out on the ridge The way to the summit I managed to fall on my crampons and break both extender bars just before the descent. Good times... I had to rappel some of the steeper bits. I totally n00bed it up. The Descent Quote
John Frieh Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 Great pics Sol and Fender4 Did anybody get a good look (or better a pic) of how snow free the ice cliff arete (the ridge climbers left of the ice cliff glacier/ice fall)? Quote
Fairweather Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 How was the Sherpa Glacier descent? Schrund ok? Thinking about going "up" that way soon. Quote
fenderfour Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 Sherpa glacier was cake. The schrund had a few ways around, at least one should still be good. I looked through the pics and couldn't find anything that showed the Arete. Based on what the pillar looked like, I would say there is some snow, but it woud be feasible as a rock climb. Quote
moronbros Posted June 11, 2008 Posted June 11, 2008 Fender, here's a pic Emily took of you guys descending toward sherpa around 12:30. Was that you guys or the other team? http://www.flickr.com/photos/26657904@N08/2570776290/in/set-72157605554197944/ I can't get over that perfect snow. Quote
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