[TR] Mt. Stuart - Ice Cliff Glacier Partial Ski - 4/5/2009

[penoyar]

Trip: Mt. Stuart - Ice Cliff Glacier Partial Ski -

 

Date: 4/5/2009

 

Trip Report:

With temps rising and a sizable amount of recent snow, Eben and I went looking for a high sheltered ski. Inspired by great reports of Ice Cliff descents in past years, we thought this might be a good weekend to give it a go ourselves. We found overall pleasant and stable snow conditions up to around 8000' (the bottom of the upper couloir) where the windloading had created an 8" unstable layer that we weren't comfortable booting or skiing. Of course conflicted about posting a TR with no summit (especially as my first one!), hopefully someone finds the conditions pics helpful.

 

 

North aspect of Stuart on the approach.

 

Ice Cliff Glacier with upper couloir. We stayed climber's left on both ascent and descent.

 

Eben breaking trail through the ice bands.

 

Our high point below the upper couloir. We dug another pit here and decided to turn tail due to the aformentioned 8" layer.

 

This has been skied in years past by men and women of greater fortitude than us.

 

Until next time!

 

Gear Notes:

A few screws, pickets and V-thread gear. We carried 2 tools each, but a single tool per person would have been fine.

 

Approach Notes:

The road to the Stuart Lake TH is gated at the campground and 2/3 covered in snow (melting fast!).

[Eli3]

Thanks for the beta! Did you guys get close enough to see how difficult the cornice is?

[penoyar]

Sorry Eli, can't comment on the cornice difficulty. Didn't get close enough plus we'd never been up there so don't have a reference. Go get some this weekend and let us know!

[davidk]

The upper couloir does look very loaded!

 

Thanks for the conditions info. Glad you were able to get some turns during that beautiful weekend!