Dustin_B

Thanks, for undermining my accomplishment. It maybe a scramble for a hardman like yourself, but it was a climb for a gaper like me.

Climbed the West Ridge of Stuart on Sat/Sun (8/30-31). Bivied Sat night just above West Ridge Notch at ~8700 ft at great bivy spot. First time biving 'on route', very cool. Some quick route beta: Took second gully from Stuart Pass approach. Left at first fork, right at second fork to the top of gully. At top of that gully look across next gully and see Long John Tower. Head down into gully and up to the left of LJT. Getting up past LJT was most exposed/difficult scrambling (4th, possibly low 5th, class). Once Past LJT head up and over several more gullies to near ridge crest then over/down to WRN. Scramble up to a ledge (we bivied here). Up to this point we felt comfortable with out ropes but Sunday we roped up and climbed onto the north side from the ledge, half a pitch back to ridge crest. I think you could probably scramble the south side back up to this point though. Then up another half pitch on south side. Drop down ~20 feet to another ledge traverse ledge over to a couple of easy chimneys. (we didn't traverse far enough and took a wrong chimney/gully, leader took a couple small falls here. Came back down and got back on route). Climb up 3 pitches to summit via path of least resistance. 10 hours TH to bivy, 11.5 hours bivy, summit, to TH. A few additional comments: A few hard moves felt like more than 5.4?? I didn't lead any of 4-5 pitches because I didn't know where the route went or what variation of the route we were on was rated. (my partner going up the wrong gully and falling didn't instill any confidence in me ). That is a long route, wow. There are lots of bivy spots all over. No snow until small patch at top of Cascadian. Carried 4 liters a piece, which was just enough (but heavy). 10.5 x 60 m rope is too heavy, need light alpine rope. Brought rock shoes but didn't ever wear them. Boots work fine. And finally the Cascadian Couloir was fine for descending but I can't figure out why so many people go up that thing this time of year??? I am baffled, that thing sucks. Summit was crowded. On Saturday we passed a guy coming down the WR route after soloing it. Cool. Long(ish) fun route.

Well shit, 2 hours to summit both Echo and O-Rock!! It took us over 3 hours just to reach the base of O-Rock. But we did stay on the Wonderland trail until we reached the climbers path (no snow cover so no straight shot). It is about 400 feet of vertical from base to top of ice. We did do short pitches for practice (I said it was my first ice climb) and a couple of those pitches took a long time. The bottom was firm snow and not very steep, the top was very hard ice. I'm sure it could be done in 4 hours, just not by me. I'm not a peak bagger, we didn't go to the summit after the ice/snow section. Good times. I wouldn't go up that thing this time of year by any other route.

The rock in the first picture does move. I've moved it. If you pull on it one way it feels solid, another and it rocks. I would not use it, certainly not with a cam underneath I have used a couple of double runners and slung both the dead tree (pretty bomber for TR) and the rock jammed right behind it. That is about as good as it gets unless you have an extra rope. You do have a lot of friction though because that tree/rock are is about 15 from the edge. That place really does need a couple hangers. There is a hangerless bolt near the edge.

East Ridge Ingalls and West Ridge Stuart (for real this time). Are the bugs still bad up there??

Its funny you said that because when we got to the top I actually told my buddy that although I got sketched at one point climbing up (it was my first "ice climb"), I would feel comfortable skiing down it when it is covered with powder. Go figure. I'll give you $5 to go ski it in its current condition.

dammit, dammit, I'll try one more time.

Climbed O-Rock Saturday for my first "ice climb". We didn't move particularly fast that day, and we were actually quite slow on the route due to our "newbie-ness", so it took us 13.5 hours car-to-car. We had great weather, clear and cold (frost on the ground from 5,000 feet up), most of the day. I guess this climb is normally about 3 to 4 full pitches but we swapped leads more than necessary and ended up with about 5 shorter pitches. The first ~70% of the climb was just firm snow, which took pickets well but probably wouldn't hold a fall on a screw (although several were placed). It then turned to water ice further up. The further right you veer, the longer you could stay on firm snow before it changes to the water ice. You could probably get on water ice much lower if you stayed on the left side but it was dirty. The water ice up top was fairly hard for the most part. At the base it was pretty low angle (~45 degrees) and got progressively steeper until the about last 50 feet or so where it pushed 60 degrees on relatively hard ice. The descent sucks because of all the loose scree/boulders. I think the descent was more dangerous than the climb. We started a few little rock slides and sent down some pretty large rocks. Every rock smaller than car-size moves. I can't imagine a person climbing this mountain on anything other than the north face this time of year. Would a person do that? Why? Twas a good time. No one else there while we where there but we did see one guy coming down after us from the climbers path.

Okay, so what does it look like? any one, any one?

What is the EDK?

Oh yeah, good point. thanks.

Yeah, that is the way we intend to go up. I'm wondering if anyone has verified the "bulletproof" ice or if there is still lots of snow covering the ice. I'd guess there is not that much snow cover with all the warm weather and low snow year. Should have explained that in my original post.

Any one been up there recently? What'd ya find, huh?? Snow or ice? I've never been, so if asking for conditions on this "route" is a little gumby, then spray away.

A friend forwarded this to me. discuss, ad nauseam

I have the guide pants and love them (but only for the spring and fall). Soft shells are no good for summer, to hot. I pretty much only wear light nylon zipoff pants for summer. I've never had a problem with the wind resistance of the guide pants as it blocks just enough to take the edge off. I have had water soak through from sitting on the snow . Softshells have their place and that is not in summer. And cragging during the summer in a softshell?? Whats up with that??

That was an old post of CBS's that I pulled up from back in June. Check the date.

Well, I know I'm not ready to swap leads on a 5.8, I still wank pretty hard on a 5.6. So that route will have to wait until I grow some balls. The largest cam I have is #3.

Did you go the choss gulley way? Uhm, yeah. No good route descriptions for this one. We didn't see the normal "ambiguous gully" until we were rapping down. It is more of a face than a gully. So we went from the notch/choss gully which sucks ass. I didn't lead it. It took my partner 4 tries of climbing up 5 feet, sketching, then climbing down before he finally just said screw it and went for it. ~35 foot runout off the deck with no pro on crappy rock. Yuck. I owe him a beer. Won't go that way again.

Easy G.

there is like 20 other routes in the area!!!!! and the becky route is thw worst one at the pass....should have regrouped and went out and climbed something pimp! Yes, we should have, as every single group we passed on the way down reminded us. We were kind of spanked from our 13 trip up the North Ridge of Cutthroat the previous day where we didn't summit. I think that had something to do with our lack of motivation. That and I suck.

Any one else ever take the wrong gully up to the base of the Beckey route? We did Sunday, it sucked, and it started thundering so we ran home. When we got out of the wrong gully the clouds cleared and we saw 3 or 4 groups heading up ahead of us to the Beckey route. We lost motivation and went for lunch. we're wankers. By the way, we passed the group with the dog going up there and I thought to myself, what are they going to do with it? The owner said it could lead up to WI2 or some such with no tools and up to 10b, so it would be leading most of the pitches. So I'm surprised to hear they left it at the base.

I live in Green Lake, I have comcast, I've had no problems. Now that I have said this, it means I've guranteed that I'll have problems when I get home tonight.

Yes, we are bringing a rope, I am a newbie With the weather looking the way it is currently, I don't think I'll need to take any water with me, I can just hold out my water bottle.

I'm leaning towards leaving the poons, but the axe is like my security blanket . Is there much snow in the cascadian right now? I would really like to leave the axe.