Leaderboard

Liberty Ridge is tough for out of town climbers. The weather is a crap shoot until after July 4th and by then the route is on its way to being out of shape.

Trip: Mt Index - Hourglass Gully Trip Date: 06/05/2020 Trip Report: "The struggle of man against man produces jealousy, deceit, frustration, bitterness, hate. The struggle of man against the mountains is different. Man then bows before Something that is bigger than he. When he does that, he finds serenity and humility, and dignity too." - Northwest local & former Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas Seeking some serenity in these nationally troubled times, last Friday I headed up Mt Index via the aptly named Lake Serene. Spent the night in my truck at the trailhead and headed out under headlamp at ~2AM. Reached the lake in a couple hours, then another hour around the west side of the lake as dawn broke. From the snowy saddle above the lake at ~3050’, it’s a choose your own adventure up the brushy east ridge with two distinct class 4 slabby steps the way I went. After the ridge leveled out, I traversed to the left for a bit, turned the buttress at 4200’, and then had continuous well consolidated snow all the way up the hourglass gully to the ridgetop below the summit. From there an easy walk to the summit going somewhat clockwise to avoid cliffs and cornices. Some moats are developing at the hourglass constriction, and in the center/left couloir immediately above. They were well bridged, but could get difficult getting in/out/over when they melt out. Looking down at Lake Serene from near the 3050' saddle: Looking up the first slabby 4th class step on the East Ridge: Upper East Ridge, hourglass gully on the left, mostly out of sight : Good snow conditions inside the gully: Looking down from partway up the gully: Summit views! The descent took almost as much time as the ascent, mostly due to copious breaks enjoying the scenery, but also some downclimbing in the couloir and the hourglass constriction, and two rappels on the east ridge. After not seeing a soul all day, I ran into TONS of hikers on the trail to Bridal Veil Falls and Lake Serene. Lots of younger and diverse folks enjoying nature. I think that’s a good thing, and look forward to this new generation getting bored with the trail hikes and venturing further and higher into the mountains to find some serenity and humility, and dignity too. Back to the truck early afternoon feeling very mentally refreshed. Gear Notes: Crampons, axe, 60m rope for 2 raps on the east ridge Approach Notes: Lake Serene

Trip: Mt. Stuart - Ice Cliff Glacier Trip Date: 05/24/2020 Trip Report: Yesterday my friend Matt and I Climbed Mt. Stuart's Ice Cliff Glacier. They opened up the Icicle on Friday but are keeping Eight Mile road gated until next weekend. So we got to Leavenworth around 8:30 or so Saturday morning and started biking up the road. The road and Stuart Lake Trail were completely snow free, along with most of the summer climbers path until about 5300'. We got to the basin at 5400' early afternoon and just hangout. It felt great to just sit there and "smell the roses" in the alpine. We also took some time to put in a bootpack up to the moraine and check out the condition of the route. At first glance the lower portion was looking dry as we kept walking up the ridge of the moraine to get a better view. Both left and right options were looking rather bony. Not to mention both exit options on the upper couloir had massive cornices at the top of them. The right side looked like it had something possibly around the corner to the right that was out of view at the moment. We walked back to our camp and just decided we would have to get up close and personal with the route options to make any judgement calls on the conditions. Between then and when it got dark I had a lot of "what if's" racing through my head. We got up at 2am and started moving shortly after. We decided that the left start was the most probable and headed there first. As we got closer it appeared climbable and turned out to be a ledgy mixed pitch with thin ice and firm snow. From there it was one ice pitch to the top of the lowest ice cliff and then one simul block to the snowfield in the cirque. The cornices still looked daunting from there and we decided we would still need to get up there and poke around. While climbing up to the couloir my eyes couldn't help but look at other things to consider as potential exit options since the cornices still seemed to mostly span the width of the upper couloir. I even poked around on a leftward snow ramp that leads to the Ice Cliff Arete just in case the upper couloir wouldn't go for us (I wouldn't bother if I was you). Other than that it was mostly uneventful from the snowfield to the constriction in the couloir, just good steep snow with a few patches of ice through the runnel. We simul'ed all of that too. The sun started to hit the east facing wall around 7:30-8:00am in the couloir and thus ice and snow started shedding. Getting up to the fork in the couloir we could see that the right side did in fact have and area that had way smaller cornices. This was a relief to see! We got up to the top of the couloir and I looked at our exit options. In the end I chose a blocky-ish mixed step that required a bit of cornice excavation to top out (thank you to whoever placed that Russian titanium piton in that area before us). It helped that the cornice had a fat ice crust in the middle of it to swing into. We topped out around 9am. The snow on the south side was surprisingly wet and it was a lot warmer there than I expected. We elected to not head to the summit since we did what we came there to do and it was warming rapidly. I noticed the usual cornices at the top of the Sherpa Glacier from camp the day prior and didn't want to play with cornices anymore. Descent down the Sherpa went smoothly but the snow was very wet. Broke camp and made our way out. This is a pretty damn good route and being in the cirque above the ice cliff is an incredible experience. I thought the climbing was fun but if I had to pick a favorite popular north side spring route on Stuart I'd choose the SGC over the ICG. After a few months of not even really thinking about climbing, it felt so satisfying to be out there in that environment immersed in the moments of self-doubt and pride that climbing provides. Gear Notes: Half rack of nuts, .75-2 cams, 2 Pickets (used quite often), 2x17 3x13 1x10 screws (used all). Some pitons could've been useful. Gear nerd side note: two Petzl Gullys with pick weights worked very well. Im in love with that setup now. Approach Notes: Follow the web of cairns, the bigger the better. Good log crossings if you stay directly on the climbers path through the beginning.

Maybe I'm getting lazy with my weather game, but at this point I just check the Hood mountain forecast (PDX based) and if it looks gross I just assume all the volcanoes are out and pack the biking/rock climbing gear instead. We do get some regional variation, but the volcanoes always have the worst weather.

It is too far out to know for sure about the 19th, but it appears unsettled into the extended: .LONG TERM /SUNDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY/...Extended models in good agreement with the upper level low moving out of the area early Sunday. This is the best chance for a short dry spell with a weak and transitory upper level ridge moving through during the day. Yet another system arriving on Monday keeping the cool and wet June weather pattern intact. Yet another upper level low/trough behind the front Tuesday for more shower activity. There is some disagreement in the models Wednesday with the ECMWF kicking the trough out of the area for a dry day. The GFS does have the trough east of the area but not far enough for a dry forecast. Ensembles in both models have about 20 percent of the solutions with some light precipitation. Will keep a slight chance of showers in the forecast Wednesday. High temperatures will remain below normal through the extended period with upper 50s to lower 60s warming into the 60s by Wednesday. Lows in the mid 40s to lower 50s. Felton This time of year the Stuart range is a good backup if the high peaks are getting hit, which is often the case. Liberty Ridge is really one that you want perfect weather on (meaning clear skies AND low wind). There have been a number of accidents/fatalities over the years on that route related to poor weather. Actually, I sort of think that is true for all the volcanoes. They have a way of magnifying whatever weather is around.