Mt. Stuart

[climberbro16]

Hey I was just wondering about the route conditions on Mt. Stuart.. if someone could give me some imformation that would be great..any snow left.. well thank you

 

[none_dup1]

Was up the West Ridge last weekend. There was no snow until descending the Cascadian Couloir. It had about 150' you would have to cross.

[chucK]

I climbed the West Ridge yesterday. My ice-axe was dead weight. I might have descended a bit low and missed a snowfield though?

The West Ridge was scary as it had a bunch of rime ice on it. I kept going because I thought the sun was going to break out and melt it all. It got pretty ugly just past the West Ridge notch, but by alternating between the north and south sides I could usually find a route less crusted. Luckily the final headwall was above the clouds and was mostly rime-free. Phew!

On top I was alternately on top of then inside of the clouds. Of course once I was in the Cascadian Coulouir all cloud cover burnt off.

Chuck

[Fairweather]

Chuck,

Did you solo? ! How is the route difficulty above the notch? Easy to protect?

[chucK]

I soloed. I have rope-climbed above the notch before (West Ridge Coulouir route) and

the protection is plentiful. I found the crux be below the final headwall. It was

a handcrack about 5.6 probably. There may be a way to avoid it, but I didn't look too much because I like handcracks and this one was rime-free. I found a very easy way to

get up the final headwall: traverse as far right as you can then go up and traverse all the way back left on a big ledge system to around the corner, then you can squeeze through a chimney under a chockstone which gets you to easy broken-up rock on the North side.

Chuck