[TR] Mt. Stuart- West Ridge 6/21/2004

[chucK]

Climb: Mt. Stuart-West Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 6/21/2004

 

Trip Report:

Climbed the West Ridge yesterday. I know trip reports without any pictures (especially solo trips lacking the colorful character interplay) are usually , so I will try to fill this with any helpful beta and conditions info that I can.

 

Driving up the Teanaway River Road near dawn I spotted (i.e. almost ran down) one elk and several deer. Drive safe!

 

Snow coverage is almost complete once over Ingalls Pass to past Ingalls Lake. They have some new BIG ORANGE signs up at the pass specifically excluding snowmobiles. One of the signs was attached to a nice size tree laying on top of the snow in headlight basin that had been recently sawed down. (Angry snowmobilers ?!)

 

I traversed the lake on the West side (which I know is preferable to the other side) then stayed on top of the ridge all the way to Stuart Pass which was way better than dropping down. It is not difficult, does not require much elevation gain, and is very scenic. From the pass, follow trail up the spine to the base of the West Ridge (at one point it traverses low on the right, do this).

 

You can climb directly up the ridge from the spine. No need to traverse down and into one of the couloirs, unless you like snow better than rock. You can/will traverse over into the couloirs up higher (follow the path least licheny).

 

There's still snow in various places (couloirs) that is mostly unavoidable, but it was very soft yesterday. I had an axe. Some spots I broke it out other places I didn't. I was happy I brought it.

 

Instead of heading to the notch above Long John Tower I headed up the spine of the ridge. This seems preferable. That LJ Tower way looks a little difficult, and appeared to deal with much more snow to boot. There's a sketchy little ledge that lets you traverse to the right under the S Face of the West Horn, then it's a bit of downramp to the West Ridge Couloir then up to the notch. Traversing on little ledges above the main one saved me a good deal of elevation loss.

 

The rest of the way is pretty straightforward and well-documented. There's still snowpatches on the North side of the ridge that makes the parts where you go over there a little sketchy (snow-covered ledges with major exposure).

 

Descended the Ulrich's Couloir. Quite steep but the snow was quite soft. A couple of scary holes to stay well clear of. Near the bottom I cut onto cliffy scrub to the West then down through flowery meadows.

 

Wildlife: One (1) Elk. Many deer. Cows. Lots of tweety birds (one that appeared to be eating bugs off the snow up by the summit). Lots of ladybugs (summit), many chipmunks...errr..snaffles, and three marmots. Oh, and lot's of purty flowers. And one more thing, the bugs are starting to come out .

 

Gear Notes:

lightweight ice-axe, approach-type boots (NIKE CINDER CONES!)

[Greg_W]

How much snow was on the summit block?

[Gary_Yngve]

Thanks for the beta, ChucK!

[John Frieh]

[Gary_Yngve]

Descended Ulrich's couloir a few days ago. Pretty melted out. Ended up rapping a few times due to cliffs, waterfalls gushing over wet slabs, scary thin snow, etc.

Found a Nalgene belonging to "Jenkins" and an old-school helmet that apparently had fallen off someone's pack. The sucker must have weighed two pounds!

 

Greg, the summit block is free of snow -- you'd have to drop into a couloir or find an isolated patch in the shade on the north side.

[chucK]

How did you ascend?

[Gary_Yngve]

By variations of the West Ridge -- generally avoiding the ledges on the south side and either wandering to the north side or staying on the crest. We had several pitches of 5.9 and ended up bivying just short of the summitblock.

But we got what we came there for -- adventure on granite!

Found lots of old booty too (noseless biners, etc.)