Whitney

From the notch at the false summit, you could probably ski around the boulders to the top of the couloir. The very top of Ulrich's is dirt for approx 100'+ vertical, and the snow is melting quick. No, you would not be able to ski 100% of the route, but you could ski 80-90% of the route to approx 5,200'.

Strange, the pictures work fine in my browser. Can you see the pictures?

Climb: Mt. Stuart-Ulrich's Couloir Date of Climb: 6/3/2006 Trip Report: We had established camp on Friday 6/2 at 6,300' just below Ingalls Pass as our weekend itinerary involved climbing both Ingalls and Stuart. After climbing Ingalls late Friday night (see 6/2 trip report) we set off for Stuart around 8am on Saturday. Unfortunately, my toes were still trashed and my boots were still like a wet mop (gotta love leather when it’s wet), but we set off nonetheless. The weather was much improved from Friday with filtered sunshine and moderate temperatures. We hiked down along Headlight Creek and crossed a snow bridge over Ingalls Creek to gain the approximate location of the Ingalls Creek Trail, which was followed to the base of Ulrich’s Couloir. Taber skied down from camp and most of the way down the Ingalls Creek trail but eventually ditched his skis along the trail as we got to lower elevations and lost the snow. He was not sure how much he could ski on Stuart and was concerned about carrying skis to the top and only being able to ski a small section of the route. We elected to climb Ulrich’s Couloir as it looked mostly snow covered and it was shorter than going up the Cascadian. Ulrich’s was well marked with a cairn at the juncture of Ingalls Creek trail around 4,800’, and there was a good trail up through the meadows to the snow. The couloir was in good shape with firm snow most of the way to the top. We used crampons most of the way up. Unfortunately, there were no steps, so we kicked steps, front-pointed, and French tech’d up the couloir…further joy for my feet and toes. Topping out of the couloir at 7,500’, the snow softened and we proceeded up another 1,000’ to the base of the false summit slopes without crampons. Top of Couloir to the right: I elected to stop at this point as the thought of another 800’ of kicking steps to the notch below the false summit was not desirable. Taber continued up the snow slopes to the notch, scrambled to the base of the main summit, and scrambled to the summit. In his words “it was a real bitch” with amazing exposure, especially in his plastic ski boots. Picture of traverse and final scramble to the summit: He briefly met-up with the three guys on the summit who climbed the Stuart Glacier Couloir (see their trip report dated 6/3). Taber met me back at the top of Ulrich’s, which is also well marked with a cairn. We descended Ulrich’s which had softened to facilitate plunge stepping. I glissaded a few short sections, but for the most part, the steepness mandated a more cautious descent. Taber was disappointed that he did not bring his skis as he could have skied most of the way from the notch below the false summit and down through Ulrich’s. We saw a few ski tracks in Ulrich’s that were a few days old. Back on the Ingalls Creek Trail, we hiked the 1,300’ back to our camp following our route earlier that day. We arrived back at camp around 7pm to continued good weather. We decided to spend the night and ended up hiking back in the rain through Ingalls Pass to the car, not much fun but at least there was a boot track to follow. Looks like I’ll only lose the toenail on one big toe…good times! Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons Approach Notes: Camped near Ingalls Pass

Climb: Ingalls-South Ridge Date of Climb: 6/2/2006 Trip Report: Left the car at 10am and hiked in the rain for 3 hours up through Ingalls Pass to camp. The rain stopped as we got to camp and the mountains were looking good. We established camp and then it proceeded to rain for approximately three more hours. We took refuge in the tent and waited for the rain to stop. Fortunately, the rain did stop around 5pm, but the cloud ceiling dropped to below base of the Ingalls climb. After spending most of the afternoon in the tent, we decided we'd rather leave the tent and hike to the base of the climb then stay all evening in camp. We left the tent at 6pm to begin our approach to the climb. We hiked 1,300' vertical on snow to the base of climb and arrived at 7:30pm. Climbed around the dog-tooth crag to gain access to the first pitch. Taber led the 1st and 2nd pitches (the pitches were combined as we free climbed part of the 1st pitch) in the mist. He was trying to climb with his gloves on; he later took them off. I climbed with fingerless mittens that worked fine. I took the second lead to the top of the technical climbing section. A short walk led us to the summit of Ingalls (7,762') around 8:30pm, it was getting dark and we're trying to get off the mountain quick: The rope snagged on last rappel (which we should have downclimbed in the first place). We spent at least 30 minutes working rope problems which culminated in me scrambling-up part of a gully using my headlamp to retrieve the rope. We wasted way too much time rappelling when we should have done an easy downclimb. Fortunately, the moon appeared on the hike back to camp which made the trip more pleasant. We arrived back at camp at 10:30pm. My leather mountaineering boots were completely waterlogged at this point...toes were bruised and numb. Ingall's is a very easy climb in a beautiful setting. Just wished we had better weather. The next day we climbed Mt. Stuart via Ulrich's. Snow most of the way in the couloir and much better weather. Gear Notes: Small alpine rack, a few stoppers