Jimmy J

Classic, and well done.

Very nice!

Good story!

Awesome outing, the good stuff.

That looks sweet

Ivan, what the heck, did you just repost this? Must have, because it's a pretty boring narrative compared to your usual invigorating penwork. Nice to know you were a grom back in the day somewhere! Cheers.

I'm looking for compatible partners or a team to join over the next couple of weeks as conditions allow. I'm keeping posted on the route, and have a flexible schedule for climbing. Let's hit it when it comes in, soon now.

Dude, I hope you die before you get old!

That's an awesome production, Thread of Ice.......

And that's from one surfer to another. You are a neoprene wearing piece of shark bait??

8 hours kicks ass. Good job.

Be bear aware....Grizzly bears are roaming the Stuart area. My buddy saw one when we were on the West side below Ulrich's in June. Huge scat piles littered about, and my pal knows the difference between a Black and a Grizzly. A local hunter bagged a bear recently, and took it to the taxidermist, who felt compelled to report the Grizz, not Black, death to the authorities. The "authorities" reportedly confirmed the existence of Grizzlies in the Enchantments, and also mentioned they haven't been forthcoming with the public about this development. Apparently, there used to be Grizz in this area, and many others, I'm sure. Anybody able to confirm this story?

Great report, nice to have a family outing for sure. I don't have any route finding excuses now. Thanks for posting.

Let me know Wayne, I can probably make next week available, in exchange, though, you'll have to settle for legs older than yours, and though free 5.8 doesn't make me real nervous, I'd be happier doing low 5's instead to keep pace. The Picketts look awesome, have my attention and I'm looking for something to fill the Liberty Ridge gap my partners imposed on me this Spring.

Good stuff, thanks Mark. When I came off the FS last time, I had followed the cairns down below a step in the FS ridge, and then a boot track out onto a sloping face above a rock band, maybe 150' below. I had to traverse out about 150', maybe a bit more to clear the end of this rock band, then it was clean face down to the boulder field. Experience is a good teacher, I'm looking forward to getting back up there. Thanks, again.

I'm interested in this route because it appears you did it without any rope or protection. Did you climb any areas where you really needed a rope? Also, if you descended the false summit ridge on that slabby face that drops you down to the boulder field above the Cascadian, how was that step off the FS? I've only done that one once, in marginal snow, and it was unnerving for me. I'm curious if that step is easy on what I assume is now bare rock. I'd assume so....thanks

Thanks for the input. Firmer snow would have been a lot less exciting.

I had an interesting personal first ascent of Stuart this Spring, soloing up Ulrich's on a very warm day in May. While finishing the summit, going left instead straight to the top due to soft snow concerns, I had my first experience of watching my boot track slowly disappear below me with an unnerving schussing sound, as the top inch or so of the trail was sluffing away and down into the top of the couloir below. While this was quite exciting regardless of the secure feeling of my boot placements, it wasn't as exciting as descending off the shoulder of the false summit, downclimbing face-in, above a rockband below. I did a descending traverse to get past athe rockband below to hit the "open" snow slope below into the boulder field. I'd guess the upper traverse slope angle to be may be 40-45 degrees, it seemed pretty steep with a couple small bergschrunds to cross. It was pretty obvious there was just a slab face underneath most of this upper section, my axe banging off the rock underneath a couple of times. I have no idea if this is the standard "winter/snow" route off to get to the easier couloirs below, but I did follow some tracks to this point of descent off the top. So, is this one of the standard descent routes to access the Cascadian or more Easterly couloirs off the top?

We all know how cold and long this winter was in the Cascades? Colder than usual in my book, anyway. I had 0 problems with my 8 year old Camelback 100 oz bladder, though breaking or leaking is still a minor concern, I don't worry about freezing up any more. Bladders also provide very efficiently pack/load-balanced hydration. Carry a small amount of Chlorine to sanitize water, or if in the winter mode bring an empty nalgene and your stove also, however you'll probably be packing that anyway.

If I get some things straightened out in my work life, I have been studying these routes a lot the last few months. I may be able to commit, but not before next week sometime. Please check back with me next week if you;re still looking. I like the looks of Sunset headwall coulir, but Success Cleaver or something in that immediate area are looking good to me, to me. Was training for Liberty Ridge, but my partners are out, also, now.

I have a question. I've recently done my first ascent using Ulrich's up and then descended the False Summit down to the SE Couloir. I found the transition off the FS to be pretty steep and exposed in warm and soft conditions a couple weeks ago. My question is how do you traverse over to Sherpa Peak from the true summit to descend on it's glacier? Do I have to traverse the steep,slabby face with or without a snow cover, similar to what I did downclimbing to the SE? I guess I'm wondering, since I haven't seen any comments about the T. Summit to Sherpa traverse, is there a simple, less exposed route over to Sherpa to make the descent on Sherpa Glacier after coming up one of the North Face routes?

Nice job, Dad. I admire your taste for new challenges. Keep up the good work, remember, it's ALL GOOD.

Great effort, boys. Rock hard, or hard rock, I say it's your call, you earned it. Nice to get some good weather up high, especially this season. Way to go for it.

I like it. The best summary of the whole discussion.