Blake

Trip: Mt. Stuart - Gorillas in the Mist - IV 5.11 Date: 7/8/2009 Trip Report: Mt. Stuart is one of the Cascades' most iconic and complex peaks. With such prominence, fame, and extensive development, one might think that all significant new routes have been climbed. However, excellent routes do at least remain unfinished. Inspired by the pictures from an attempt by Mark Allen and Mike Layton, as well as a desire to climb or unearth a new hard route on the Enchantment's premiere peak, Sol Wertkin and I were excited to give the West Stuart Wall a go. Work and anniversary obligations had cut Sol's available climbing time down to one day, so I contacted Jens Holsten to see if he wanted to head up to the peak with me on day one, in order to fix the first few pitches and have Sol meet us on day 2. Jens was stoked to join the team, but insisted we could go alpine style. Of course Jens also insisted it would be 90 degrees on the summit and we didn't need to bring backpacks. Caveat Emptor when getting beta from Mr. Holsten. NOAA was predicting breezy and cool conditions, so we all brought along windshirts. It's summer right? We left the trailhead at 5am and after a few hours ended up at Goat Pass, near the start of the West Ridge. The West Stuart Wall rises up maybe 900' from the snow... but where the hell was it? The face had seen various activity in the past, and we found 2 bolted anchors (stamped '1993') as well as runners low on the route. Perhaps it was a rappel route, perhaps it was someone's unfinished (or aided) project, or perhaps it had already been sent in its entirety. We didn't know and didn't really care. Roping up at the base, we knew we'd have some solid, memorable, and steep climbing. Edited/explained down below - after contact with the 1993 folks, it sounds like this climb was a new route to the top of the wall and the peak Jens led off pitch one, following the OBVIOUS clean hand crack, mantle, and chimney to a belay on the right. This pitch was probably the crux of the route at 5.11- and would see nearly constant traffic if it were located at a crag in the icicle. Steep, with solid rock and great gear, it set the perfect tone for the wall. Top of P1 The next pitch headed up and left across 2 bottomless corners and hanging aretes, 5.9 with positions to keep the adrenaline going. Jens' final lead was the mental crux for us, but shouldn't deter future parties. He headed up and left from the belay, past a 4" crack, and shouted "Watch me" as he launched into the unknown. Sol and I, unable to see the climber, witnessed a large handhold get ripped from the wall, and the simian sounds of grunting and vomiting as Jens styled the 'monkey traverse.' Did you throw up? No way man... just a little dry heaving Jens would go on to finish the pitch in style. The followers both cleaned out the hand traverse crack, and future parties should find no shortage of solid gear all along this pitch. 5.10+ Sol about to 'go ape' Finishing the Monkey Traverse Did you see that big block come flying off? ...uhh yeah, we thought it was you From here Sol took over, finding a yosemite v-slot, and an immaculate finger crack and stem box to another perfectly flat ledge. 5.10- Pitch #5 headed up and right, with a bouldery 5.10 crux move, belaying at the first significant ledge system on the wall. We continued across the 'skywalk traverse' to the right and set off again. I took the lead for a 30m pitch of 5.8 (but mostly easier) on what we thought would lead up to the West Ridge, but we hadn't finished the wall yet. From a belay in the clean V-slot/groove, I followed up a long immaculate right-facing corner, with hand and fist cracks through a small roof, and finger cracks up a slab to the hanging belay, our first belay spot that was not a comfortably flat ledge. This pitch was 55m of sustained 5.8 crack climbing. From the hanging belay, a short hand crack lead straight up to the West Ridge, and I mantled over the top with a 'whoop' and monkey shout. We started up the West Ridge in a fog, with winds steadily increasing. Winding around towers and hidden pinnacles, the rock was more and more covered in ice. Soon our rope and cams were iced up as well. The wandering terrain and numerous gendarmes kept us guessing, and as darkness fell, we knew it was time to quit fighting the conditions. The three of us settled in for a memorable bivy of uncontrolled shivering, made more so by the presence of 0 sleeping bags, no stove, no puffy jackets, and 2 30liter packs in which to stuff our six wet feet. I don't know the temperature, but Jens' water bottle froze. We joked about getting lost on a mountain which we had all climbed before, but kept our spirits high thinking about the quality terrain we'd covered. In the past few years 3 of the Enchantments' 4 biggest peaks had seen new or 're-discovered' hard, excellent rock climbs. Solid Gold and Der Sportsman had been unearthed on Prusik, Dragons of Eden was re-climbed on Dragontail, and The Tempest Wall established on Colchuck Balanced Rock. With a climb of the West Stuart Wall, the 4th peak had fallen into place and Stuart's modern rock climb established. Our platonic spooning subsided at 4AM, and Jens started things off right by breaking out the breakfast of champions, in the form of one "Worthers Original" for each of us. No longer climbing inside a cloud provided a significant morale boost, and Sol thawed out our semi-functional cams with his mouth, once again establishing the value in being full of hot air. After a quick summit stop to revel in the sun, we headed to the Sherpa Glacier where soft snow allowed us to descend a few thousand feet back to the valley bottom in no time. With today being Sol's anniversary, he knew his wife would be especially nervous about our delayed return (and extra jealous of all the spooning enjoyed by Jens and myself). We hustled back to the car and enjoyed our true breakfast, the creek-stashed beers we'd left 30 hours before. EDIT: It turns out that Mark Makela and Geoff Sherer did some climbing on that wall in 1993 and put in the bolts, going up with full-on wall gear, and fixing ropes. They made it up what would be most of the pitches, using a mix of aid and free, but never completed the last few on wall. In any case, it's an amazing climb that should be on the list for future parties. Approach: Just north (around to the left) from the toe of the West Ridge, near Goat Pass. Route starts in the middle of the face, you can't miss that pitch. Gear Notes: Single Blue and Green Alien, 2x Yellow alien to #3 Camalot, single new #4 camalot. Set of nuts. TOPO: HUGE VERSION

Does anyone know if that West Face Wall was ever climbed? Free or with bolts? Contact info for these Cle Elum hardmen of the early 1990s or the fellow who occasionally posts here at MattStan would very appreciated.

Darin estimated there are 25 routes in WA (or maybe in "the northwest" which are 5.9 and harder that see traffic ( a few ascents a summer at least). Maybe: Prusik - Beckey and Stanley CBR - West Face Dragontail - Backbone Stuart - N. Ridge - NW Face - Girth Pillar There's 7 from the enchantments Lib Bell - Lib Crack - NW Face - freedom rider Lexington - East Face NEWS - NW Corner and West face SEWS - DEB - Boving route - passenger? - .10b variation to SW rib? There's ~9 from the lib bell group Burgundy - North Face Chianti - Rebel Yell Juno - Clean Break 3 more N face bear, NE buttress of Slesse That's a total of 21, and sadly involves only 2 routes that aren't at WA pass or the enchantments...

Maybe some of these are unknown if you don;t waste too much time on the interwebs Dragon Scar, Dragons of Eden, or the Boving routes on Dragontail Solid Gold, Der Sportsman or Lady Godiva (see 1975 AAJ) on Prusik Acid Baby on Jabberwocky tower Send the cc.comer "alpinemonkey" a pm about more obscure stuff on lighthouse tower, various needles, or doorish routes. He has written some neat TRs about obscure stuff in the area. Sounds like there the supercrack of the enchantments is on Meteor Tower.

One thing to consider, if you wait until later in the summer when more snow has melted, it's easy to do the whole ridge from the Cle Elum (South) side without crampons or ice axe, then descend the cascadian quickly back to your car. Makes for a very light backpack.

If the Wash Climber Coalition or a similar group were to host an Index fundraising event this summer, during an evening in August, which night of the week do you think you or your climbing friends would be most able/willing to attend? Thanks!

Just the thing...

It got cleaned last year, I think by Chris Henson. Thanks to whomever it was! It is a good route, take lots of finger-sized gear - 5.10b. There are new anchors as well. It requires a 70m to TR though. A friend almost got really injured or worse on this route with a 60m rope. I think you could use the intermediate anchors on TF to get off with a 60m.

MAybe they are getting on the less-traveled (and newly cleaned) routes.

Nice Sol and Geoff! Astroman man of L-Town is Hyperspace, right? I think the traditionally in-situ nut is a BD #3 or equivalent. Way to crush on the wet traverse, but the real crux beta would be: how do you keep your rope from getting stuck in that little lip on the roof?

Castle Peak is on the Okanogan/Whatcom county line. If you climb the Kearney route, it's on the left side of the North Face, so maybe it will be dry even if the other North Face routes are in rain. Other ideas - Tower Mountain / Golden Horn / Silver Star

Tatoosh P1 Iron Horse Sagg (Full) Thin Fingers TR Princely Ambitions TR Japanese Gardens Heaven's GateLeave My Face Alone Kite Flying Blind Hairway to Stephen Cunning Stunt (with the short extension) Raps off DH-LA Not to mention hundreds of newer lines in places like indian creek, or most modern sport crags. One 70m also allows rappel descents from many peaks and towers than would otherwise require two ropes.

Tim, don't fear the Ruper!

Hey Wayne (or Sol?) I wonder how Solid Gold relates to the 4 various Fred Yackulic routes on the South Face of Prusik? I found a couple entries from the AAJ, routes were in 1988 and 1987 . Prusik Peak, South Face of West Ridge. On August 16(1987), Rich Romano and I ascended the leftmost crack system on the south face of Prusik. The large overhang on the second pitch was passed on the right. A short overhanging hand crack and airy face moves brought us to the west-ridge route. (The climb is left of the Boving-Christensen route.) (II, 5.10.) Prusik Peak, South Face of West Ridge. On August 3 (1988), after being stopped the previous day, Rich Romano led through the large overhangs 50 feet to the right of our 1987 route. A pitch higher in a big alcove, we crossed left of the other route, then climbed a beautiful white dihedral by a thin finger crack, gaining the west ridge (II, 5.11+). The following day, we climbed a diagonaling crack system up and to the right to a belay on the southwest arcte and ultimately to the west ridge (II, 5.11). On August 11, David Goland and I did a route that starts further left, in a striking right-angle dihedral. After two pitches, we were forced out of the dihedral by the lack of protection. We entered a curving slot up and right, which placed us at the base of the now familiar finger crack (II, 5. IO+). The climbs are named Double Bein, Keep on Belton. and Notley’s Direct. FRED YACKIJLIC

You can "tie" into the middle of a rope without any carabiners. Pull a BIG bight of rope through your belay loop, then take this loop and pull it up over your head and step through it, like a jump rope. Cinch it tight, and wa-la, you have girth-hitched yourself to the middle of the rope, no carabiners or big knot.

You can also ignore all the above changeover shenanigans, clipping with a clove/daisy stuff, etc. Simply trade belay devices at each belay. A. Second climbers gets to anchor/autolocking belay device, does not tie in or clip in, just leans back and starts grabbing the pre-sorted gear from the prior pitch's leader. B. Previous leader (now the 2nd climber) grabs the belay device off the harness of the second climber, clips it to his/her belay loop, and puts partner on belay, while they are still hanging off the other auto-locking device. C. New leader climber, now racked and ready to go, just grabs the locked-off belay device (that they had been hanging on, or secured to the belay with) and leads on to the next pitch. D. If you know you will be flipping leads, use the rope to build each belay. It's fast, dynamic, strong, and means fewer runners are required.

Brandon, if you climb Heaven's Gate with a 60mm rope, you can then rap back down Golden Road (plumb line, each rap is ~28m) and tighten the bolt (if you can reach it under the roof while on rappel). Obviously not a nice thing to do if the route is occupied.

Ditto, he's still after this or other snow routes near Hope. If interested in climbing (or approaching) such routes with a veteran alpinist, give a PM or email.

Hitch Hiker Starts 100' Right of the Passenger. Brian, do you remember where you were when you took the photo, or how close to the ground that climber was?

Salish Peak - Flight of the Falcon Castle Peak - North Face Complete East Ridge of Silver Star Goode NW Buttress Amphitheater Mountain - North Face - Middle Finger Buttress Colfax Peak - Polish Route How about the E. Pillar of Slesse, Labor Day on NEWS, Yvon Chouinard route on Cutthroat, The Nose on The Deacon or Boving Route on Dragontail?

I'm curious which (durable) alpine backpacks sell for less than $150. In my opinion Cilogear has some of the best packs around for mountain climbing (Especially now that they're made in Portland) and they also have some of the lowest prices compared with BD, Arcteryx, etc. I know they had occasional stitching/contruction issues in the past, but seem to always stand behind their backpacks. I've put my new-fangled lightweight Cilogear bags through a lot of days of climbing, with no meaningfull damage or deterioration. Sol Wertkin and I hauled a fully over-stuffed 45L Cilogear bag for many pitches up a new alpine route last summer, and it came out looking no worse for wear, even though the rock was very coarse and backpacks defnitely aren't designed to be hauled like that.

It seems like there are various quasi "neighborhoods" in the cascades which feature several good climbs to represent the region. I am thinking along the lines of the Hwy 542 trifecta of Nooksack Tower, NW Arayete on Mt. Shuksan, and North Ridge on Baker. Another might be the Cascade Pass: Torment-Forbidden, North Face Buckner, and NE Buttress J-Burg. I'm sure there are other examples too.

And a couple new (retro) bolts from a subsequent ascent!

Eric, I think Julie's roof is harder than KFB pitch one, but maybe the overall reason for your theory is that you have a lot of upper body strength and can crank on steep cracks or finger locks, whereas the face climbing might require more precise feet, crazy high-steps, or tech savyness.

Good call... the best roped climbing in Leavenworth? Maybe Edge of Space if I were a little braver.