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[TR] Stuart Range - 1/28/2005


Gaston

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Climb: Stuart Range -

 

Date of Climb: 1/28/2005

 

Trip Report:

Wednesday I hiked with S in to the meadow below Sherpa glacier. By the time we got there, we were pretty sure no climbing would take place. This is because the approach took 9 (!) hours. We booted it up the road on reasonable snow. But things deteriorated as we rose (has there been an inversion in Leavenworth lately?) The thin snow pack combined with the recent warm temps combined for a posthole epic. From the junction with the Colchuck lake trail, the way consisted of strenuous postholing and deadfall acrobatics. Further up, the boulder field was down right dangerous (we made it worse by heading uphill too early and then traversing through bonus boulders). Neither of us are in bad shape; the conditions are simply horendous at the moment. Snowshoes might have helped, but would have been annoying while negotiating deadfalls and boulders.

 

As for climbing, the look of the northeast aspect we could see in the morning gave us little hope that we would find anything around the corner on the Northwest face. To be precise, it wasn't worth negotiating the moraine slope up to the Stuart glacier. It snowed a couple of inches during the night, which made the mountain nice to look at. Also, on a promising note, the temperature dropped a lot and the snowpack firmed up a bit.

 

On the way out, we had good views of Dragontail. No ice appears to be be formed there--even the runnels on Triple Couloir seem to be absent. Also, Asgard pass looked hellish.

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

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A little bit of searching this board or just asking would have saved you a ton of "epic." I always feel so bad for anyone who ends up in the boulder field! It is so NOT the way to approach! Hopefully you figured out not to return that way too. You also should have known to bring snowshoes. Maybe next time we'll have the telepherique installed!

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