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Stuart West Ridge Beta Request


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We're heading up there next week (never been before). I've checked out SP (good stuff). Anyone here got anything they'd like to share that would be useful as far as staying on route? Are the technical sections near the top easy to protect or should we expect some run out stuff? How long would you expect to take RT from Ingalls Lake? Thanks!

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As far as where to stay....You should stay at the Tenaway parking lot. As far as pro near the top....no problem if you can climb 5.6.

 

I did the route a couple of years ago with an weak partner and two packs of cigarettes...we did it unroped in 14 hours car to car.

 

Route finding....hit the W Ridge and go up and right...watch for goats and Mountaineers!!!!

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Stuart presents a bit of a dilemma regarding the car-to-car vs camping strategy. Doing the West Ridge (vs. North side routes) makes the situation a little simpler, however...

 

It can be deceptive, because some folks cruise the route (or other routes) on the mountain, climbing quickly (or soloing) through the technical sections, returning to the car the same day.

 

Others carry loads of gear, move slowly, and bivy once (or more!)

 

My suggestion, if you're not familiar with the area, is to camp near the bottom of the Cascadian Couloir, so that regardless of your speed en route, you can simply descend back into camp...

 

I have climbed Stuart car-to-car and being familiar with the area was one factor that helped me to do so...also, being more fit at the time than I am now probably helped too!

 

Check out other TR's on this site for more context.

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Looks like from Ingalls Lake, there's a trail that crosses the outlet and traverses over to Stuart Pass. From the pass, seems like a straight shot and short descent/traverse over to the base of the 2nd chute. After descending Cascadian Couloir, isn't it just a matter of following the trail along Ingalls Creek back towards Stuart Pass and to Ingalls Lake? I would have thought a camp at Ingalls would make the most sense? The blue route shown is no doubt way off as far as the descent but...is the line back to Ingalls MOL as drawn? Thanks

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Your blue line back up the creek toward Ingalls is correct. It'll just feel like a nasty slog back to camp after coming down Cascadian.

 

As for routefinding on the WR itself, well, all I can say is don't bother paying too much attention to any cairns you find. They're everywhere (as are really choice bivy sites). I think there's some kind of correlation between the number of seemingly random cairns and the number of bivy sites.

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First, camping AT Ingalls lake is verboten. Camp in headlight Basin (just to the south) if you must camp in that area.

 

Second, sure -- you can climb the W Ridge, descend the Cascadian Couloir (brutal!) and then climb back UP to camp again if you want to...

 

or, you can bivy at the bottom of the CC in the many sites in the trees there, and then simply climb over Long's Pass to drop straight down to your car again....

 

Your call. If you do it the way you've drawn, let us know how it goes!

 

Good luck. wave.gif

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Anyone here got anything they'd like to share that would be useful as far as staying on route? Are the technical sections near the top easy to protect or should we expect some run out stuff? How long would you expect to take RT from Ingalls Lake? Thanks!

 

You got some other reasonable advice, but I'm not sure if anyone answered your explicit questions.

 

As far as staying on route, it gets very confusing once you're up in that stuff. Scope it out well from a distance and try to burn it into your memory. Pick out landmarks that you will be able to recognize when they are up close and towering above you. Also, a very handy routefinding tip is don't head out over anything that is very licheny. The West Ridge is quite popular: lichen = off route!

 

As far as protection. Stuart is a pro-placing dream. Clean cracks of all size abound. No worries. Med-large nuts would probably suffice, but add in some cams yellow TCU - yellow Camalot, and you'll have a good rack.

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do it in three days and relax and enjoy it.

 

Yeah... taking 3 days to climb a whole bunch of 4th class + 2 pitches of 5.6 is really relaxing...

 

Spend 2 days on a ridge with no water so you are dehydrated as fuck and then go climb with a 40 lb pack on your back (which isn't doing your coordination situation any favors) a bunch of horizontal pitches where your potential fall distance is much greater unless you bring a big wall rack and sew the shit out it.

 

And people wonder why more people get hurt on the west ridge than the north ridge rolleyes.gif Sounds real fucking relaxing to me Kevin rolleyes.gifrolleyes.gifthe_finger.gifthe_finger.gif

 

I'm gonna start taking 3 days to climb the se corner at beacon. Bivy at the tree ledge! the_finger.gif

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Hmmm......guess you feel strongly about this topic, huh John? Your points about more injuries on the W than the N is well-taken, though it kinda makes sense to me that this would be the case...

 

Anyway, another way of interpreting the three day suggestion would be -

 

Day 1) Hike in and make camp

Day 2) Climb the route and return to camp

Day 3) Hike back out to car

 

Thus, the "relax and enoy it" theme? This would not entail a 40-lb pack on the ridge, nor two days of dehydration...

 

Granted, this is probably not how I'd do it, nor is it necessary for a route that can be done car-to-car, but different strokes, eh?

 

Playing devil's advocate for a moment:

 

If you're trying to minimize accidents on the W Ridge, some might argue that advising people to do routes car-to-car when they might not be ready to do so is another good way to foster more accidents...

 

No need to boxing_smiley.gif about it...

grin.gif

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John, Goatboy summed it up. I have climbed the north ridge twice and the west ridge once. The first time (7 years ago on the north ridge) we tried bivying on the route. NEVER AGAIN, I then learned the approach and were to camp.

I climbed the north ridge (second time) and the west ridge with about 10-15 pounds on my back. Went tent to tent and had a great outing. Hiked out the next day and back to Ptown. We truly relaxed and enjoyed the day. No rush, no weight and no injuries.

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We just descended the West Ridge on Sunday ... it took a long time (5-6 hours, but that includes an extended lunch break) but still probably shorter than it would have taken us to do Cascadian and then walk back around (we needed to get back around to Stuart Lake/ Mtneer Creek TH). If we had to do it again, now knowing the route and where the rappels are, I think we could go from the summit to near Stuart Pass in ~4 hours. If you go up West Ridge, you'll see where some of the raps are, so it could work for you as well. We made ~7 raps in total, although some of those we probbaly could have walked/downclimbed around.

 

There are nice bivies in the last gully before LJT with snow nearby, if you wanted to try an up-and-over. But the route would require such a small rack it might be better to just camp at Ingalls and roundtrip it from there if you have the time. Whatever you do, bring DEET and/or some kind of bugnet (this coming from a New Englander), the skeeters are hideous up there!

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Yeah that was us! We got a little confused crossing over to Long John Tower, but the rest was straightforward, just long. The mosquitoes were deadly going down the gully below the Stuart Glacier, we basically ran from there to the TH!

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I climbed the W ridge a few years ago with no pack or rope and it was pretty doable as a semi relaxed pace. The climbing gets boring it is so easy. I traversed right well below LJ Tower and found some nice hand cracks and a few old bivies. Still only 5.6 or so and many choices at that.

Descending the same way is pretty easy. If you go down the Cascadian and are going out Windy pass (Is that Windy pass over the fork on the Ingals?) trail or back up to Ingalls, travese right out of the CC down about 2/3 but just above the black tower to the right. It takes you down another gulley that is steeper and drops you on the trail up higher and directly across from Windy pass.

Anyway, nice climbing. Have fun!

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