chadwalker

Awesome write-up! Do you happen to know the condition of the Cascadian at this time?

Bravo!!! That looks awesome!

Thanks for the thoughts. I think I just need to get out more places to get more objectives. There's only so many times I can leaf through Classic Climbs without getting in the car and driving. I'm going to admit something that I'm ashamed to admit. Wait for it. Wait. I've never been to Washington Pass. I've been here for a year almost and I've never been to WA pass. That is all.

AND does anybody have any information on the speed record holder? I remember reading 5:45 c2c... Can this be confirmed? Anybody else come close? What are your personal best times?

Thanks for chiming in everybody. My intentions were never to suggest that anybody bite off more than they can chew, but rather give a different perspective than is usual given the trend of reports for this climb. Obviously consequences will be severe for mistakes made when you are pushing it way out in the mountains. And accidents can happen anywhere. Once again, I am not recommending that anybody unsure of their abilities in the mountains hurry out to Stuart and go on a scrambling binge. But I am making the argument that if you are comfortable going ropeless on the Tooth, and have your route-finding wits about you, that Stuart should feel like a natural step in your progression. A question to those of you who have been where I am: what is the next logical step? Bigger? Faster? Yes, but how much? I'm sure I'll have to be the one to decide.

Gaucho, have you ever climbed the West Ridge? In my experience up there, the rock was solid enough to move quickly and comfortably over. No rock shoes, no chalk. I'm sure just about anybody could chime into a given situation and tell of how they know someone who knew someone who had an epic on any given route. My recommendation to solo climbers to "go for it" was the result of my own internal battle when preparing for the climb. All around the world wide webs, there are stories and tales and opinions about climbs. When trying to get beta for the West Ridge, I read everything from "wandery, route-findy, beta-intensive, follow the green line in this picture, not the red line, loose rock here, loose rock there, don't get off route or you will quickly find yourself in 5.9 no-man's-land... yadda yadda yadda" to "it's 3rd class". I found it to be much closer to the latter. The problem with these internet reports is that we often have no context of the authors experience, skill level, route finding abilities, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Often the author has come from a group of folks with the Mountaineers and are out for their first alpine climbing adventure! Or it's somebody fresh off of 20 years on the couch looking to "get back after it". There's no way to be certain. I for one didn't know how to judge how prepared I would be for the route, which led to feelings of anxiety and frustration. There is a greater issue here: The YELPification of climbing. We don't know if the internet author had shitty service, found a cockroach in their food, or just had a bone to pick with the wait staff... Everybody's got an opinion, and I for one don't care to hear all of them. When deciding the best plan of attack for a given route, how does anybody know how best to prepare? Comparison with other climbs in their own experience. When I compared the climbing on the West Ridge with that on the Tooth, I was hoping to put the climb into some context: If you feel comfortable soloing the Tooth, you'll find the West Ridge's technical climbing a breeze. Granted, there's more logistics and route finding (and it is a much longer day), but if you have a nose, you will find the way. Hopefully my report can be of some inspiration to other potential onsight solo climbers looking to move fast and light, but are uncertain if they'll succeed. When I was getting ready for this climb, I was reading all of those reports. I was thinking, "will I be able to handle this? This exposed 5th class up high on the route? This potential for 5.9 climbing without a rope?" The reports are all over the place. I'm writing this to the proficient climber, the experienced scrambler, the closet soloist who enjoys long days on easy (3rd, 4th, low 5th) terrain. If you enjoy endurance scrambling on solid granite, Stuart is pure gold. Loose blocks exist, yes (not in abundance), but that is a danger both in the alpine, and at your local roadside crag. Having a rope on, or not, will not change that fact. Gaucho, I'm sorry to hear you know someone who took a fall on the route, but you should totally get out there and climb it if you haven't. It might change your perspective on it.

Trip: Mount Stuart - West Ridge Date: 9/2/2013 Trip Report: I climbed/hiked the West Ridge of Mount Stuart on Labor Day before work at 4PM in Seattle with a car-to-car time of 8 hours 35 minutes. This was my first time completing the route and my second attempt on the mountain. I only ran the section from Long's pass back down to the trailhead. I didn't plan for Labor Day traffic and I was an hour and 15 minutes late to work. I left Seattle at 3:45 AM and was on the trail at 6AM, at the base of the route at 8:25, summited at 10:56, was down the Cascadian Couloir by 1PM after a half hour of bushwhacking at the bottom. Back over Long's pass by 2PM and down at the car at 2:35PM. I had attempted the route a month ago, but was shut down by lack of visibility due to cloud cover. Before I go any further I want to say, that with the rating of II 5.4 I expected to find more rock climbing on the route. The vast majority of the route is 2nd and 3rd class walking/stair stepping in gullies and on ledges. The supposed 4th/low 5th class after the notch on the North side is not nearly as exposed or stiff as some other reports may have indicated. In my opinion, the entire route goes at 4th class. Sections of potentially difficult climbing can be easily avoided if desired, as many options exist. A note to the hesitant potential solo climber: If you are worried/concerned about the 5th class climbing up high on the route, don't fret. All of the climbing beyond 3rd class is completely secure, juggy, blocky, short, and not terribly exposed. Finding the line of least resistance will undoubtedly be your main crux of the route, and it's not really much of a crux. Follow the Beckey beta and you'll be fine. I would rate this routes technical climbing as easier and less sustained than that on the Tooth, but the logistics and nature of the route are more involved. I definitely recommend this route to anybody sure-footed in the mountains. It is a great endurance day running around at elevation, moving quickly over easy solid rock. If you're into mountain running and have done all the stuff down the i-90 corridor, definitely don't skip out on this one. It's not the most classic rock climb, but definitely is the most enjoyable mountain scramble that I've done around Seattle. Leave the climbing shoes and chalk bag at home, you won't need them. HOW DID SOMEBODY DO THIS C2C IN 5:45????????? Holy cow. OK, now for some pictures from my first attempt: My first view of Stuart ever. Ingall's Lake God's country Clouds about to win the war There's more of them than there is me Cloudy West Ridge Cloud I'll be back! AND pictures from Labor Day full of sunshine and send points Sunnier this time around Above Long John Tower: Still got a ways to the notch and the summit block Summit Shot!! Leaving Pano And there you have it! Get out there and put up some times people! The conditions are perfect right now!!! Gear Notes: 5.10 Camp 4's 2 Liters of water Shot Blocks Goo Banana Apple Rain shell just in case iPhone No axe, no crampons, no snow, just rock! Approach Notes: Fill up 2 liters of water @ Ingall's Lake, Be prepared for Long's pass. There is no water between Ingall's lake and Teanaway creek after the end of the Cascadian. Move quickly on the route and don't dawdle.

Trip: Snoqualmie Pass - The Tooth Date: 6/8/2013 Trip Report: The Tooth... Where to begin? We did the route last Saturday morning. We started approach at 7AM at the trailhead. There were 3 other cars in the parking lot when we got there and we found out these folks camped in the lot and began approaching at 4AM... Yikes! The approach was mellow. Snowy after about a mile. Sunglasses would have been a luxury. Trekking pole did come in handy. Wished I had something relatively water resistant for my feet (had 5.10 Camp Four's). We made the base in under 2 hours, each carrying a pack (we went heavy (I expressed plenty of disgust with this choice along the approach)). When we got to the base, there were two parties of two above us and a party of two at the base getting ready to climb. I asked the party if they were planning on passing the parties above and they said No. They said we seemed to be moving faster than them so they offered us the lead (very nice as they'd been waiting at the base for an hour for the parties above (4AM'ers) to do something.) I pooped. We racked. I lead the first 'pitch'. Passed the two parties of two, placed a #2 somewhere, and belayed my buddy up after 70m. Broke down the anchor And lead up to the top... Belayed Jeff up again. It was a good thing too, since he was cruxing HARD The views were awesome. Thanks to the Mountaineers, there are beautiful super-redundant nuclear blast proof rappel anchors located every 30 feet down the Tooth... Taking note of the loose shards and bushes abounding, I decided to downclimb. My partner chose to rap. I beat him down by a few minutes, had an apple, thought about the hike out and didn't feel entirely fulfilled by our two pitches of climbing. So I took my harness off and climbed it again. And downclimbed again. By that time, it was 11AM and I had to get to work in Seattle by 4... so we began our snowy run down. Jeff chose to butt slide. Back to the car by 1PM.. 6 hours C2C, climbing the route twice. Could easily cut this time down to 4 hours. Gear Notes: I won't hike out there with gear again. Light and fast. The lighter the faster. If you must bring a rack, go singles of fingers-hands. I found spots for a red C3, orange Mastercam, a #2 C4, and built our anchor out of 2 .75's. 70m rope brought us to the top in 2 pitches with plenty of rope left over. Chalk and shoes would be a better choice. Approach Notes: Snow city. But better than talus? Best conditions early in the AM. 2 hours if you are moving.

Hello, I was on Orbit that afternoon as well, in fact I believe my partner and I were at the same belay right before this accident occurred. I'm sure my story isn't the most accurate, as what we saw was only bits and pieces of events leading up to (what I assume was) the incident. I'd like to share what information I saw, even if it had absolutely nothing to do with the actual fall. My partner Sean and I started up the Snow Creek trail late in the day, assuming we could fly up Orbit in the afternoon as most slower parties would have started much earlier. When we got to the base of the scramble to the first belay it was around 3:15PM, by the time we had racked, scrambled, and climbed the first pitch and found ourselves below the 5.2 ramps it was around 3:45PM. We became aware that there were not one, but two parties on the pitch above us. It was unclear whether they were a group of 5 friends, or if it was 2 different groups, one of 2 in front, and one of 3 behind. I led the pitch of easy 5th up to the slung rock belay under the roof to evaluate our chances of passing these parties. When I got to the belay there were two girls there (out of the party of 3) and their leader (Amy I believe) had already led the next pitch. The two girls were very nice and were talking of how windy and cold it had gotten since they started climbing. They were also a bit concerned about the descent and I reassured them that it was relatively straight forward by alpine standards if done in the daylight (many cairn's, well travelled, etc). I belayed my follower up to our anchor as the two girls were preparing to follow the pitch ahead of us. At this point it was clear to my partner and I that we were not going to be able to pass this party and the next, so after a bit of talk we decided to descend from where we were and grab hamburgers instead of waiting an hour at each belay for the next 5 pitches. It was about 4:25. We rappelled from that anchor and were down in two rope lengths on a 70m. As we reached the base we looked up and saw that the party of 3 had started rappelling from the pitch above. They must have decided they were going too slow to finish in the light and decided to bail. What we saw next, I assumed is what led to the tragedy that occurred, but I could be completely mistaken. As the first person was rappelling, who I identified to be the 3rd climber in their party (last to reach the final belay), we noticed there were no safety knots tied in the end of the rope. The rappel position was horrendous, with about 25 feet of traversing necessary under a roof to reach the previous anchor, all above another roof with the ends of the rope dangling off the edge and out of sight. We watched the rappel for a minute, but it looked like the climber had everything under control, so we continued packing our gear and headed to climber's right to stash gear at the base of Iconoclast for our climb the next day (Wednesday). As we were walking away from the base, we heard yelling coming from the party, but it seemed like communication, not desperation. This seemed concordant with the amount of verbal communication we heard from them while on-route. We stashed our gear at the start of Remorse and headed down the climbers trail, crossed the logs, regained the Snow Creek trail and tried to get a visual on how much progress they had made on rappel. Neither my partner or I were able to locate anybody in the party on the wall. We looked at the belay they were bailing from. We looked at the belay we bailed from. We looked lower, and lower, and lower, and higher. Nothing. We didn't see any ropes, or any people. We figured they had made good time and gotten down safely, or were out of sight at a belay, perhaps behind a rock or a tree on their way down. We didn't hear any communication after that yelling. So we ran down the trail and got dinner, drove back up Icicle Creek road, and passed the trailhead parking lot to see a huge search and rescue operation mounting. We pulled into the parking lot and asked what had happened and were told that there was a female climber on Orbit who had fallen. We shared what we knew with the SAR team and offered any help we could give. My partner is a WEMT and I have no formal medical training. They said they would call on us if help was needed that night, but declined immediate assistance as they had 20+ paramedics, SAR personnel and sheriffs on scene already. We assumed this information meant that the climber who we saw rappelling in those circumstances had gone off the ends of her rope as a result of a slip while doing that traversing rappel. This could be completely wrong. The story of rockfall and a 70-100 foot fall means they got down off the route safely. My partner and I are totally confused and very saddened by the situation. My thoughts and condolences go out to Amy and her friends and family. I'm very sorry for your loss.

I have your cam. Sent you a PM.

Trip: Darrington - Total Soul Date: 5/6/2013 Trip Report: So, there's a good sized rock fall blocking forest road 2060 about 2 miles from the 8 mile creek trail, so definitely plan on a bit longer of an approach. Snow covers the first pitch so we kicked steps and started up the line directly to the right of Total Soul (snow was lower) for two pitches then rapped 30' and left to the top of p2 anchors of Total Soul. Climbed pitches 3 and 4 following the dike, some great slab climbing all around and fun finger pockets in the dike on p4. Like they say, bring a few pieces for this pitch, and your #1 has never seen a better placement than the one that comes at 35ish feet from the last bolt. At the top of p4 we decided to bail because my partner said his downturned bouldering shoes were too tight (go figure). Will be going back out there next week to fire it again... Great quality rock. My first trip to Darrington and I was in awe. Gear Notes: 9 Draws, 2 ropes, small rack of cams Blue metolius-#2 camalot. Few slings. Sunscreen! Approach Notes: Add 2 miles to approach and descent due to rockfall blocking Forest Road 2060. Total approach 1:15