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[TR] Stuart- Complete North Ridge 7/27/2005


TeleRoss

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Climb: Stuart-Complete North Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 7/27/2005

 

Trip Report:

Sky and I hatched a plan over nachos and beers at the Colleeg Inn to do the complete N Ridge of Stuart in a day car-to-car...seemed simple enough: hike trail to Ingalls Pass, around the lake, over Stuart and Goat Passes and then down scree/dirt/boulders/slabs and snow to the toe of the ridge. Climb the ridge then descend Cascadian, over Longs Pass and back to the car.

So Tuesday night after fueling up on much pizza and caffeine I picked up Sky at midnight. We pulled into the parking lot just after 2 and quickly woke up some guy sleeping in his car with our blaring music....sorry.

So we hit the trail at 2:45 and quickly covered ground...only too much ground, because after several miles with no pass or lake in sight we were wondering where in the hell we were. Soon we saw a sign for Lake Ann...WTF? Where is that? Neither of us knowing where that was we kept going a little ways until we decided to make a sharp right turn and contour around rocky slopes up towards a high point. An endless scree slope/rigde brought us up to a point near Ingalls Peak...and down below the lake and trail. Yay.

After descending another endless scree/boulder slope we got on the trail near the lake.

We passed two other parties shortly after Stuart Pass. One heading for the W Ridge and one for the Upper section of the N Ridge. We left the ridge and made our way over to Goat Pass. Easy dirt and rock and a few soft snow crossings led us down down down to the toe of the N Ridge. We located the first pitch and sat down to eat and organize our shit.

We pitched out the first five pitches of the lower ridge. Nice cracks and squeeze slots and some blocky traversy climbing led us generally up and right and then back left to the crest of the ridge.

Once up on the crest we simuled the entire ridge all the way to the base of the Great Gendarme. We passed the other party doing the upper ridge a ways below the Gendarme and briefly chatted about the route and the descent, they said they too were heading out that same day so we said we'll probably see you on the descent sometime.

anyway, Sky led the first pitch on the gendarme, a kick-ass layback and jam crack in a corner leading to a sweet pedestal belay. (anyone bivied on that pedestal?)

I led the second pitch a short rightward traverse and then up a wider jam/fist crack. From there we simuled up and right on blocky terrain to the summit...14 hours from the car.

Damn, what a fine route! So much fun. And it was only 4:45 so we were sure we would make it down before dark...super stoked.

We lounged around for a while eating and drinking the rest of our water, packed our shit and started down. We hit the Ingalls Creek trail soon enough, but unsure about which way to turn to catch the trail up to Longs Pass we let our instinct to just bushwhack take over and went straight up in its general direction. We eventually found the trail just before the start of the swithbacks up the scree slope up to the pass. Over the pass and down to the car, this time making all the right turns at the junctions, back at the parking lot 18 hours after leaving it. Wow what an awesome day in the mountains. Not a cloud in the sky, beautiful route, and a lot of ground covered....plus a bit of bushwhacking...what more does one need?

-should have pics up soon.

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Wow -- having done the Upper N Ridge car-to-car in a long day, I am really impressed by how quickly you guys did the Complete N Ridge so fast -- despite the navigational errors on the approach trail!

 

By the way, we also were clueless about which way to turn when we hit the Ingall trail Junction at the bottom of the Cascadian -- we debated and guessed, and were delighted to have guessed correctly! That slog back up Long's Pass trail is demoralizing after you've just slogged DOWN the Cascadian . . .

 

Nice work bigdrink.gif

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thumbs_up.gifthumbs_up.gif

 

Sounds like you missed the turn for Ingalls Pass... it comes quick right out of the parking lot (< 5 minutes)... you gotta watch for it. Great job on still finding the trail and sticking to it!

 

Good work and great time! Sounds like you guys are ready for the north ridge of Baron Spire! hahaha.gif

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Sorry Mark, no Dick shots.

 

I just saw the cover of the new climbing last night and thought, "Wow, that looks sweet. Where is that?" Oh, duh.

 

That's probably the funnest climb I've done. It only has one flaw. There isn't nearly enough traversing. Good thing we started the morning off route.

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  • 2 weeks later...
By the way, we also were clueless about which way to turn when we hit the Ingall trail Junction at the bottom of the Cascadian -- we debated and guessed, and were delighted to have guessed correctly! That slog back up Long's Pass trail is demoralizing after you've just slogged DOWN the Cascadian . . .

 

What is the right answer, anyway?

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down cascadian, hit ingalls, you hang a right, up hill for a little while (ymmv, depending on how much you wander r or l after dumping outta the couliour), then an obvious fork L at a sign, to Long's.

 

another question: is it Long pass or Long's pass? variously signed and shown on maps, i wonder if it's a person Long, or Long pass as in a long-ish feature? historians?

 

peru, your post above makes me laugh, knowing that you did N ridge + in good time, go tug yourself... evils3d.gif

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