andybob

As G2G mentions, you bypassed the Cascadian Couloir for the inviting basin skier's left of that big dividing ridge. Looking at your GPS track over the Google Earth image, the Cascadian is the direct line from the snow field to the Longs Pass trail.

We descended Goode after climbing the NEB on Wed, 7/27. From the summit, we made three raps back down the summit prominence to the skier's right of the route, passing by a pillar and then trending even harder skier's right to end at a webbing ladder below a slab -- the ladder brings you down to a short foot path to the Black Tooth Notch and you can stay on rappel to reach secure footing on the path, using the ladder to assist. From the end of this path, there's a short step down 5', where a large boulder has an obvious rap station on the left. A direct rap (slightly skier's left) led to a sandy sloping ledge with another station. The second rap from the notch was directly down a full 30m to a small alcove. A third rap brings you down into the (currently snow-filled) gully. From there, we scrambled down rock rather than using the short-lived snow ribbon.

Jeffrey, I think you'll be fine without axes on the S side descent and it's common practice for parties coming off the W Ridge or the Complete N Ridge. If following the bootpack seems dicey, you could probably bypass the snow on rock, or rap down the steepest portion of snow. I'm not sure what the snow's like coming down from Goat Pass around the Stuart Glacier. If that has any steep sections, then a light axe might be prudent (I had a light 50cm axe). Enjoy!

Trip: Mount Stuart - Direct Upper North Ridge Date: 7/15/2016 Trip Report: First time on the North Ridge, so just some observations for those getting out soon. The Stuart Glacier traverse and the snow gully are in great shape. There's a steep exposed 50 ft traverse to get to the base of the gully, and the gully itself is quite steep, so crampons and axe were necessary, but there were no cracks or bergschrund to manage. With last week's weather, the upper pitches were completely dry. There are some small patches of snow on the N side of the summit block, but the route itself is snow free. Gear Notes: Brought a #4 for the gendarme and didn't even place it, so as other have suggested, it's not necessary for a 5.9 leader. And yes, the fixed and reslung #4 isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Approach Notes: There's still snow on the steep slope between the W ridge and Goat Pass, so if you're not carrying an axe and crampons, you'll probably want to traverse down from Stuart Pass around the toe of the W Ridge. The steep slope below the false summit is still snow covered -- we pulled out our axes, but crampons were unnecessary late in the day with soft snow. The second snow field below the prominence with bivy sites allowed for plunge stepping and glissading right down to the left of the Cascadian. The couloir itself is snow free.