[TR] Mt. Stuart- Ulrich's Couloir 6/3/2006

[Whitney]

Climb: Mt. Stuart-Ulrich's Couloir

 

Date of Climb: 6/3/2006

 

Trip Report:

We had established camp on Friday 6/2 at 6,300' just below Ingalls Pass as our weekend itinerary involved climbing both Ingalls and Stuart. After climbing Ingalls late Friday night (see 6/2 trip report) we set off for Stuart around 8am on Saturday. Unfortunately, my toes were still trashed and my boots were still like a wet mop (gotta love leather when it’s wet), but we set off nonetheless. The weather was much improved from Friday with filtered sunshine and moderate temperatures. We hiked down along Headlight Creek and crossed a snow bridge over Ingalls Creek to gain the approximate location of the Ingalls Creek Trail, which was followed to the base of Ulrich’s Couloir.

 

Taber skied down from camp and most of the way down the Ingalls Creek trail but eventually ditched his skis along the trail as we got to lower elevations and lost the snow. He was not sure how much he could ski on Stuart and was concerned about carrying skis to the top and only being able to ski a small section of the route.

 

We elected to climb Ulrich’s Couloir as it looked mostly snow covered and it was shorter than going up the Cascadian. Ulrich’s was well marked with a cairn at the juncture of Ingalls Creek trail around 4,800’, and there was a good trail up through the meadows to the snow. The couloir was in good shape with firm snow most of the way to the top. We used crampons most of the way up. Unfortunately, there were no steps, so we kicked steps, front-pointed, and French tech’d up the couloir…further joy for my feet and toes. Topping out of the couloir at 7,500’, the snow softened and we proceeded up another 1,000’ to the base of the false summit slopes without crampons.

Top of Couloir to the right:

 

I elected to stop at this point as the thought of another 800’ of kicking steps to the notch below the false summit was not desirable. Taber continued up the snow slopes to the notch, scrambled to the base of the main summit, and scrambled to the summit. In his words “it was a real bitch” with amazing exposure, especially in his plastic ski boots.

 

Picture of traverse and final scramble to the summit:

 

He briefly met-up with the three guys on the summit who climbed the Stuart Glacier Couloir (see their trip report dated 6/3).

 

Taber met me back at the top of Ulrich’s, which is also well marked with a cairn. We descended Ulrich’s which had softened to facilitate plunge stepping. I glissaded a few short sections, but for the most part, the steepness mandated a more cautious descent. Taber was disappointed that he did not bring his skis as he could have skied most of the way from the notch below the false summit and down through Ulrich’s. We saw a few ski tracks in Ulrich’s that were a few days old.

 

Back on the Ingalls Creek Trail, we hiked the 1,300’ back to our camp following our route earlier that day. We arrived back at camp around 7pm to continued good weather. We decided to spend the night and ended up hiking back in the rain through Ingalls Pass to the car, not much fun but at least there was a boot track to follow.

 

Looks like I’ll only lose the toenail on one big toe…good times!

 

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axe, crampons

 

Approach Notes:

Camped near Ingalls Pass

Edited June 8, 2006 by Whitney

[mountainhesh]

Good job guys, I love climbing around Stuart. I'm not too good with HTML, but try using the <img> instead of <image> tags for your pictures to work. (that seemed to work )

Edited June 8, 2006 by mountainhesh

[Whitney]

Strange, the pictures work fine in my browser. Can you see the pictures?

[mountainhesh]

They look fine now, before, you could only see the code. Regardless, they look great and great job on true grueller!

[Weekend_Climberz]

Two great peaks in a weekend. Can't beat that with a stick. Good outing guys

[JoshK]

Is Ulrich's and/or Cascadian still a worthwhile ski descent, in your opinion? Would converage allow skiing from the top of the coulior to the valley floor?

 

thanks,

-josh

[Whitney]

From the notch at the false summit, you could probably ski around the boulders to the top of the couloir. The very top of Ulrich's is dirt for approx 100'+ vertical, and the snow is melting quick. No, you would not be able to ski 100% of the route, but you could ski 80-90% of the route to approx 5,200'.

Edited June 9, 2006 by Whitney