North Ridge of Stuart Solo

[boonecounty]

After getting screwed by my boss this past week into working on the weekend I decided to try and solo North Ridge in a day. My boss whored himself to Iain and his friend I will call N. N was supposed to go to Dragontail with me but bailed and joined in with my boss. Rolled from Bend up to the parking lot on Thursday night arriving around 8pm. There were some mountaineers there who were headed in for Ingalls south face and they were super friendly to me. I crashed in the dirt and probably slept for 1 hour, thankfully the mountaineers were really quiet and it was super cool of them. Hot and mosquitoed out I finally fell asleep at around 10:30pm. I woke up and almost failed in my sleeping bag. Tired legs, worn out body, could I do it or would I suffer massively. I realized I had to get out of bed to take a leak anyway and once I got out of bad I eyed a starbucks doubleshot and it looked good. I knew if I drank that it was all over. Tasted the sweet stuff and started to get motivated. Left the trail at 12:30am. Took a lowe alpine summit attack with a super small rack, 9mm line, silent partner, and camelback bladder. Had a little route finding issues as it was early and I had never been in there before. I descended stuart pass and then went up the couloir instead of the obvious goat pass. Cut left on ramp and still made it out okay. The sun came up as I tried to put my crampons on, the mosquitoes reeked havoc on me instantly. There was a sweet boot track all the way across the glacier from goat pass and sweet steps up the couloir. I did it in a pair of Montrail Hurricane Ridge with a old pair of Smc scottish strap on poons. No ice axe but I separated my one trekking pole into two pieces and used that for self belay. I was on the route and ready to go around 6:45am. There was a cool father and son team above me who had kicked the big steps. I talked with them for a minute as I cruised by. Soloed to the Gendarme. busted out the rope and self belayed the gendarme pitches. Can't be harder than 5.7+ I think. I had to do the first pitch three times because I forgot unhook my rope when I rapped down the first time to clean it. It was so much fun I did the next pitch three times. The next pitch was chill and there was like one offwidth move on the entire pitch with a fixed number 4. I ran from there down around the Gendarme and did a dangerous traverse over to the 5.8 handcrack. I should have dropped lower on the traverse it was definately not the safest thing I have ever done. Soloed the handcrack trailing the rope and hauled my pack. Summit at noon and on the descent at 12:30pm. I screwed the pooch and made a left at Ingalls trail. I had forgotten my map and route description. Walked for 1.5 hours before I realized I was going the wrong way. Turned around and booked back and over longs pass then jogged down to the trail head with some sore ass knees. Ran into my boss in the parking lot and one of the mountaineers gave me some cold water as all I had in my car was hot gatorade. Overall a great route, I have to do the complete next year. I finished around 17 and 1/2 hours. could have gone a lot faster but I was tired to begin with. drove back to Oregon and slept in various parking lots along the way. Finally made it to work at 9am exactly after a shower. Only 3 1/2 weeks till I am back in the midwest teaching high school. Direct N. Face Bear, Slesse, and W. ridge of forbidden still on the tick list for the summer. Then stop in Rocky Mountain National Park for the Yellow wall on the diamond. Not a bad summer for a redneck choss climber from Missouri.

[Dave_Schuldt]

Nice!

[leejams]

boonecounty said:

Not a bad summer for a redneck choss climber from Missouri.

 

way to go flatlander. Stupid ? but do you live near waynesville MO? Just wondering as I got a tatoo from that town years ago. Anyhow did the half stuart couple weeks ago and forbidden yesterday. In town again give me a shout as I am always looking to hook up on weekends.

[iain]

Killer climbing, boone co, nice. Had a sweet time with your boss and N. on the N ridge on Sat. I say first pitch of gendarme is cake, but the second felt a bit harder than your 5.7 (for me at least). If roped up, simuling is the only way to go. We left at 3am and change and were on the summit by noon. Descending cascadian flat-out sucked. Nice work redneck!

[erik]

[ckouba]

Any recent beta for Stuart Glacier conditions? Crampons needed? Footwear recommendations? Snow up high for water?

 

Any real beta would be great.

 

Thanks in advance,

Chris

[Toast]

Stuart Glacier was no prob this weekend. There are open crevasses on the lower half but none through the traverse route. Do bring crampons. The snow was hard to ice in some places. You can get away without an axe, but I was glad I had one. We wore mountaineering boots, and I was glad I did given the descent route. Not much water after the glacier. Though, we did catch snow drips in one of the gullies on the way... enough to fill bottles if you have the time to wait. Bring plenty of bug juice. Flies and mosquitoes are vicious right now.

[chris_w]

There is snow part way up gully to the ridge Also a snow patch just before the slab, and another if you do the rap and 4th class finish. On the summit there is still a lot of snow just southwest of the summit block. The summit snow will be there for a while, the one by the slab I'd give 1-2 weeks.

[Charlie]

I was up there this weekend- Who took all the pencils out of the summit box!!!!???? I couldn't leave my annual quote of obscene rap lyrics...now I have to go back up again this year. Those mosquitos were bad- I think I've got about 1000 bites right now- I'm fucking going crazy!!!

[Doug]

Charlie,

 

Your use of grammar is atrociuos - I believe it should be "I'm going fucking crazy".

[iain]

Doug said:

atrociuos

Is that some greek friend of yours?

[Doug]

Yes, he was the cabin boy on the Greek vaseline tanker I came to this country on.

[johnny]

Boone, you Rock!....I was the son, you know, the younger, better looking one. Glad you liked the steps across the glacier! Stuart really kicked our asses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My father and I didn't get up the ridge quite as fast as you but the climb was absolutely stellar nonetheless Was especially cool for me for two reasons as I grew up out there but now live in North Carolina; I was just out in Wash as a tourist Other and perhaps more important reason was being able to do such a beautiful climb with my dad....Old man is 60 and I still can barely keep up with him!!!! I'm just lucky I guess.