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Stuart Glacier Couloir Climb and Ski


markws

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On Monday the 19th, I climbed and skied Stuart Glacier Couloir. I left the parking lot at 9 pm on Sunday night and made a light bivy below the Sherpa Glacier and caught a couple hours of sleep and hung out for a couple more while the sun came up. I wasn't in a big hurry. I was feeling beat down from 3 days of downhilling on the bike in Leavenworth.

 

The conditions were generally good for the climb itself. The couloir constriction was a short step of 70 deg firm snow and ice. The rest of the climb was variable snow and generally wasn't too deep. The ski conditions were pretty good but not ideal, no big turns. There was a firm layer with anywhere from no snow to several inches of soft snow on top. I didn't continue up from the west ridge notch and instead just waited for a decent window of visibility before I headed down. Just before I reached the top of the couloir clouds started to blow in and it closed out for almost an hour. I thought I was going to end up descending in a whiteout but lucked out. When I got to the constriction I tried to find some reasonable anchors for a rappel but I didn't have much luck even though I'd brought a few pins, nuts, and a couple of ice screws. I was very surprised at how compact the granite was there and I ended up downclimbing.

 

It's a great steep ski line with nice exposure and some pitch to make it sporting.

The solitude on the North side of Stuart was nice compared to all the traffic around Colchuck lake.

 

 

 

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Hi Mark,

I'm curious if you encountered any rockfall in the coulior? I was there in late May last year and my partner and I got buzzed and thwocked by lots of smallish rocks. I think the temp was a little higher than ideal when we did it.

 

What do you estimate the temp was on your climb?

 

When we climbed there was enough fixed gear/slings along the east (climber's left) side of the coulior for rapping, though we went over the top and down the Sherpa. That west ridge was heinous with big snow mushrooms all over the "mid 5th class" rock.

 

Congrats on your ascent and descent!

 

bigdrink.gif

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fleblebleb said:

What had the weather been like for the couple of days before your climb Alpinfox?

 

Hmm... The day of our approach hike it was pretty cool and mostly cloudy with occasional sunbreaks and a few little snow/rain mixed flurries. I don't remember what it was like the day before that.

 

On the day of the climb, we had intermittent clouds and occasional snow flurries. It was breezy and the temperature was right around freezing. We hoped it would be cooler to stabilize all that shizit, but my feet got pretty cold belaying as it was, so maybe that was for the best.

 

A general note for folks heading up that way. We saw a huge avalanche early or mid-afternoon on the ice cliff glacier that came right down across the climbing route. I've heard others talk about big avys coming down there too. I'd be very wary of that route, even though it looks like a boatload of fun.

 

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I believe that everybody I know who has ever climbed the Ice Cliff Glacier has described it as scary. I mighit try it sometime, but it seems to be something that most people do not repeat.

 

(I expect 20 angry replies about how so and so had a great experience on it and how could I say something so stupid, but that's been the general tone of what I've heard over the years.)

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Aw, share it Skoog smirk.gif

 

Last year was a heavy snow year but this year is below average, that definitely has a bearing on both the Ice Cliff and Stuart Glacier Couloir routes. Paradise and Baker actually almost made it up to "normal" snow levels but does anybody know if the same holds for Stuart? Colin and Forrest, care to chime in? Markws? Anybody else? There is much less snow on the Stuart Lake trail right now than there was at the same time last year.

 

 

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fleblebleb said:

Uh, confused - markws says Monday the 19th, so this was about a month ago? I read it and thought last Monday... Oops.

 

I bet that was a typo and he meant 12th or maybe they have a different calendar system in Canada?

 

yelrotflmao.gif

 

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I skied the couloir on Monday the 12th, earlier this week. I apparantly couldn't read a calendar correctly. I didn't encounter much stonefall at all. The temperatures were fairly cold, in the 30's probably. There was quite a bit of spinddrift coming down from the left (climber's) wall. There were some sluffs that came off above the right wall as the sun came around and hit it. Anywhere flatter they wouldn't have been big enough to do much harm but they were certainly large enough to blow one off their feet and down the slope.

 

I took some photos with a non digital camera and they're being developed. When I get them back I'll see if I can scan some in. Half of the shots were on a slide roll but I think some of the photographers I know have slide scanners.

 

There was a large serac fall and subsequent avalanche out of the ice cliff glacier a couple of days before I passed by. It actually buried the old tracks of the previous party in there.

 

In regards to the snowpack, there seems to be a very dramatic line between a thin snowpack below treeline to a deep one in the alpine. This seems to be the result of the warm winter and contined unstable spring weather. There must still be a large amount of snow up there if I didn't see any of the fixed anchors.

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markws said:

In regards to the snowpack, there seems to be a very dramatic line between a thin snowpack below treeline to a deep one in the alpine. This seems to be the result of the warm winter and contined unstable spring weather. There must still be a large amount of snow up there if I didn't see any of the fixed anchors.

 

I've noticed the exact same thing, Mark. This winter was particularly odd in that it snowed almost none below 2500 or 3000 feet. Then between 3000 adn 4500 or so there seemed to be less than average. The higher you got, it seemed, the snow pack seemed closer to normal. I'm hoping this will mean roads melting out quicker, with the high alpine choss and skree continuing to be covered with snow for a while. thumbs_up.gif

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I’ve noticed the split snowpack too, I think that rather than a stormy spring, it comes more from the two mid-winter meltbacks we had. Twice over the winter (in December and then late Jan.) it rained a lot up to pretty high elevations, melting back the snowpack almost to the ground. Winter had to “start over” with snow accumulation in this zone. But above a certain elevation (around 4,500 – 5,000’, seems to me), that rain was still snow, so the melting never happened. Thus, normal snowpack up high, and then a sudden change to very shallow at lower elevations.

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Ya I gather this nasty weather we're having is all over the Cascades. Just check the forecast, nasty. Cold upper level trough with hail and thunderstorms, pretty much the same forecast everywhere. Nasty nasty. I think I'll shoot my plans and go to the gym this weekend.

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Nice ski Mark! rockband.gifbigdrink.gif

 

When we skied Snowking in early February, I was shocked to see how sudden the transition was from completely bare ground to complete coverage, enough to ski. Most of the split in the snowpack did come from the warm, yet wet winter I think. I can't count the number of times I looked at telemetry data this winter with lots of precipitation but a snow line of 4-5000 ft. Some of the split is also due to our stormy spring too. It really takes sunny days to heat up the alpine and melt a lot of snow. The cloudy days prevelant since April haven't been melting a lot of snow up high, but the same days are above freezing lower down and melt back the snowpack there.

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Yeah, man, we made it....finally. If you can believe it, it took us another 6 or 7 hours or some such from when we saw you guys on top. pitty.gif the conditions were incredibly nasty to say the least. *everything* required excavation and the rime "ice" was all completely worthless. some pitches required hours of clearing. the only good side was the weather really didn't get bad...just cold. I was good meeting you guys and thanks for the nice easy to follow path back to the sherpa!

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JoshK said:

Dalius rockband.gifs too! Talk about trial by fire for a guy's first real experience with mixed and crappy snow&ice climbing! hahaha.gif

 

SO JOSH WERE YA SCARED UP THERE, SINCE IT WAS YER FIRST TIME? DONT WORRY I AM SURE STEBBI WAS GENTLE AT 1ST!!!!

 

hahaha.gif

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