Set out 3am Sunday with Terry McClain for an attempt on Stuart's West Ridge. A warm breeze greeted us just as we stepped onto the trailhead. A nearly full moon brightened things a bit, but headlamps were necessary, especially since we passed the cutoff on the Esmeralda basin trail to take us to the pass. It came up sooner than either of us expected and we sailed past it in our eagerness to get on the mountain. We had nary a clue that this foreshadowed the entire character of our climb. After losing 30-45 mins. 'shwacking up to the pass (saw a set of cougar prints meandering through the hikers') we crested as light was rising into the Ingalls creek drainage. (Note #1: If someone says their in "great" shape, get clarification, ie, "Did you finally make it up Si for the first time this season, or have you summitted Rainier 12x this year?" Very important. Hardman Terry kicked my ass.) Snow covered everything between us and Ingalls Lake and was easy travel contouring toward the lake. Past the lake we stumbled across some bivouaced climbers who had done the W. Ridge the day before- 13 hours and they had bivvied, too. Not having prepped for anything but an emergency bivy, we hustled our way up their steps to the 2nd gully and began our ascent of this behemoth of bomber granite. (Note #2 be careful of other people's steps.) We followed the steps up the gully, quickly replenished our water supply and continued up. The steps were good and seemed to be on route, but we found ourselves disregarding the guidebooks' advice- if it's over 5.4, you're off route. We started with a 5.8 pitch on slabby granite with few holds and a reachy crux- kinda fun! Then after a brief snack continued up another gully that was knee deep in the slush and not interested at all in having steps kicked into it as it rose to 60 degrees at its top (were we on route? Stay tuned.) We continued on and up, gunning for Long John's Tower, aware that an impostor was lurking to fool us. We gained enough altitude to pick out the false tower from the real McCoy (and countless other similar formations) and began to work our way toward it. Unfortunately, while approaching it, it disappeared around another ridge and the route got harder to follow. Without getting too long winded, we manged to blast at least 3 hours to smithereens getting off route and backtracking (not including what we'd lost that morning on the trail), left some new webbing on a rock to warn climbers away from the incorrect route (and to keep all the old manky webbing we saw on the mountain company) and through much effort and clearheaded route-finding (thanks Terry!) in the face of difficulty, we found ourselves high on the West Ridge and began moving toward the West Ridge Notch, the landmark for the moves toward the summit block. After more climbing and occasional stops to check maps and route descriptions (tick tick tick) we gained the notch and began looking for the ledge system Beckey says will take you onto the north side of the ridge to return later to the south side, then move toward the summit. Not really seeing a ledge system, I led out from the highest point of the notch over low 5th class terrain looking for Beckey's "tiny notch." Well, I found just such a notch, but so much sooner than I expected, that I again became suspicious if we were on route. I sat on the notch and looked ahead at lines I DID NOT want to climb at all. I returned to Terry's belay stance to confer (tick tick tick). We decided to try and get on the Beckey ledge system. It turned out to be ledgy, wet, and lichen covered, with a move around a protruding boulder between two ledges that hung out over a good 800' drop to the Stuart glacier. Hmm, didn't like that either. With the sun sinking fast, and sleep deprivation and fatigue taking its toll, we called it and steeled ourselves for the now necessary bivy. We made calls to people expecting us back sooner than we would be, let them know we were okay and would be longer than expected. We got water at the notch from a slow drip, put on every layer we had, stuffed our feet into our packs and huddled under a space blanket for the night. I was awakened periodically through the night because Terry's entire body was a cell phone set on vibrate and it was telemarketing time (poor guy was freezing), or my own feet rubbing themselves together to get warm.
We arose at 5am and set out to find an alternate route on the south side of the ridge that was little used. Doubting ourselves a bit by the inconsistent reports of distance, features, etc., we explored a line that came up blank (but was good recreational climbing if you plan for it!) Tick. Tick. Tick. We went back to the ledges to try for the tiny notch again. I went out on the same line as the night before, which was higher and less exposed than the ledge system, and again gained the tiny notch, this time seeing a cairn atop it. I guess there was a right time for us to climb past it. I also saw the alternate route on the south side, I had also explored it the night before (very glad we bivvied). Terry followed me out and spotted a piton on the way. From there it was really fun. We knew we were near the summit block, before us lay a tricky-looking reachy crack that actually fell behind me and a couple of good boot-jams in short order. Then another short pitch over a small ridge and we were on the block! We inched out onto a ledge and planned our last moves to the summit. There was talk of a route from the top of the South Rib that was easy climbing, but the traverse to it looked less than appealing. We decided to make a go for it from the ledge we stood on. A little hard pulling on a crack on the right side of the ledge and over some 3rd class terrain later, I was belaying Terry up and ready for the final pitch. Beckey calls it a 5.8 lieback and that it is the crux of the route. It was the most fun pitch of the climb, for sure. I'd say the rating is good, but liebacking it didn't seem the best way to get up it (but then again my head was dreamy with sleep deprivation and sunburn on my neck for the rack to rub on). Anyway, I clipped a solid piton at the top of the crack, pulled over to more 3rd class, belayed Terry up and we stepped up onto the summit together. Unfortunately the horizon had been covered all day by far away massive pointy rock things in all directions and summit time was no exception. We snapped a couple pics, phoned home, dressed down for the ascent, and set off. The traverse to the Cascadian couloir was well marked with cairns. We glissaded about half of the snowfield and stomped down the rest. Without all the painful (very painful) details of the descent, I'll just say that it took us 6.5 hours, summit to car (I was dragging ass by this time). If you plan on doing it in a day, I suggest you get in the best possible shape you can attain, stock up on Gu, study the route for weeks, and then go climb da Toof instead! Actually, it was a great climb, a very aesthetic line with sick exposure and medium hard pulling on killer granite, and the best was saved for last (at least as far as summitting goes). Terry may have more to add, I'm sure I forgot something, it was an epic ascent.
Car to car time: *confidential*
Weather: perfect
# of times Terry said "We gotta keep moving!": once (per 15 minutes)
Beckey's favorite words: short distance, traverse left, ledge, gully, notch. I think for brevity he replaced about two dozen words in the English language with these easy to remember and catchy phrases.
