Stuart West Ridge Beta Request

[John Frieh]

Complete North Ridge of Mt. Stuart, Guy Edwards, 6:47, car to car. October 2001.

 

[kevbone]

Thats unbelievable!He must have been soloing and running on the trail. Were talking close to 18 mile round trip with close to 5000 foot gain and loss.

[spotly]

Well, we made it up and back. Decided to go in through Longs Pass then up to Stuart Pass, summit, descend the CC and back out Longs Pass. What a fantastic climb. The chutes to Long Johns Tower were great - we picked harder lines to make it fun then easier ones as we noticed the time dwindling. I think we must have gotten off route several times because 3 of the 5 pitches were nowhere near 5.4. The pitch to the tower and the last two pitches to the summit had to go 5.8 for us. If the move by the fixed pin near the top isn't 5.8 then.... A bit unexpected for both of us with our limited trad experience. Still, the rock was excellent. We did have to do an unexpected bivy neat the top of the CC (at least we hoped it was the CC) from 1 am to 5 am (like I said, we squandered too much time enjoying the climbing [read off-route]). A miserable night there under piece-o-crap emergency blankets. Our water iced and we had iced fogged hammering at us the whole time. I'll post a report and some pics in a few days but wanted to say thanks for the beta - came in handy.

[Jerm]

Nice work. I was wondering about you guys being on Stuart in Sunday's crappy weather. It poured over on this side, Static Poiint was a washout for us.

 

I think there are two ways to LJ tower, one goes up a steeper chimney on the far right side of that gully (bunch of slings at the top of it), the other goes more up the middle (two parallel chimneys) and is easier.

[fenderfour]

I was up there on Sunday. Snow and rime were the order of the day. brrr...

[mikebell]

I spoke with you lower down and saw you get to the notch while I was climbing the summit block Sat pm. Glad it went well. I've bivied up there more than once, planned and not.

[spotly]

I spoke with you lower down and saw you get to the notch while I was climbing the summit block Sat pm. Glad it went well. I've bivied up there more than once, planned and not.

Nice job by the way. Looked like you were having fun experimenting with different lines. I believe we should have taken the same way as you did to the notch at LJT - was it 4th that direction? Here's a few shots of you checking out another route up LJT

[mikebell]

That looks like me caught on camera having to downclimb. Yes, once I looked around and realized where I was my route went left and up to the ridge, then around the north side and back for a 4th class traverse on the ridge to end up above the notch without needing a rope.

[spotly]

In case anyone is interested, I put some pictures and a long TR HERE

[jaee]

16-18 hrs is fair w/ 3 folks placing pro. 12 hours is cruising for 1 or 2 soloing. Under 10 would be a continuous light jog.

[colt45]

16-18 hrs is fair w/ 3 folks placing pro. 12 hours is cruising for 1 or 2 soloing. Under 10 would be a continuous light jog.

I don't know about that: a light jog is probably 4-5 mph, and the west ridge is certainly less than 40-50 miles CTC...I bet 10 hours r/t would be doable for a fast roped team that knows the route.

[AJScott]

The cold weather was great on sunday, it felt like early winter up there all day! I saw your headlamps up on stuart, i was bivied inbetween argonaut and colchuck. I was wondering if you guys were ready for a bivy or not...looked like you were trying to find your way down in the dark for a little while. Why not descend back down the ridge?

[Weekend_Climberz]

Complete North Ridge of Mt. Stuart, Guy Edwards, 6:47, car to car. October 2001.

 

 

Guy Edwards, West Ridge of Pigeon Spire under eight minutes, solo and naked.

[spotly]

The cold weather was great on sunday, it felt like early winter up there all day! I saw your headlamps up on stuart, i was bivied inbetween argonaut and colchuck. I was wondering if you guys were ready for a bivy or not...looked like you were trying to find your way down in the dark for a little while. Why not descend back down the ridge?

 

I think we saw your light as well (pretty late at night if I recall). I guess we figured we'd take our chances on finding the path rather than scramble the ridge. Seemed like it shoulda been easy enough. Funny that we bivied so close to it I promised to take a friend back to do the route so should go faster and smoother the second time through. If not, I'll have to keep doing it until it does - dang it!

[spotly]

Based on previous years and the weather this year, what are the odds of running into ice or snow problems on the west ridge in early September? Sure, always a possibility but..the odds. I'm thinking of heading back again but I'd think bailing off that 3rd/4th class gully with thin snow or ice would be a pain at least.

[cluck]

I'll toss my wild-assed-guess $.02 in. I'd say snow & ice in early September is unlikely. In fact, I'm banking on it as I'll be heading up there this weekend. Hopefully this little low-pressure system doesn't prove me wrong.

 

Spotly - when you were up there, did you need ice axes to get down the snow field in the Cascadian? Do you think it's likely to have melted out in the last month? I'd hate to haul an unnecessary axe up the West Ridge.

[gslater]

When I was up there around Aug. 15 a couple of years ago, I had my super-duper lightweight Camp XLA axe, and did use it along the edge of that snowfield. Was very glad to have it at the time. Since it's short and weighs a pound or less, it wasn't too bad to carry.

 

I'd think you could certainly get by without it, but I personally preferred going down the snowfield to going down some of the horribly loose rock around it...

[Rad]

There's a trail skier's right of the Cascadian snowfield. It's not too bad. No ax reqd there.

[devinejohnny]

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.

When I first climbed Stuart (via complete NR) my partner and I went from the Teeneway TH to Ingalls lake on Saturday afternoon. We camped their, then left our heavy bivy gear stashed by the lake. We went light and fast around to the NR, summited by 2PM, then returned to the lake via the Cascadian. With no heavy bivy gear we moved quickly. When we returned to our gear at the lake, we had already gained most of the elevation necessary to drop back to the TH. I think this was a better idea then hauling bivy gear a) up and over the route and b) all the way up Long's Pass.

Edited September 8, 2006 by devinejohnny

[spotly]

I'll toss my wild-assed-guess $.02 in. I'd say snow & ice in early September is unlikely. In fact, I'm banking on it as I'll be heading up there this weekend. Hopefully this little low-pressure system doesn't prove me wrong.

 

Spotly - when you were up there, did you need ice axes to get down the snow field in the Cascadian? Do you think it's likely to have melted out in the last month? I'd hate to haul an unnecessary axe up the West Ridge.

 

Sorry - didn't see this till it was too late. As you probably already saw, no ice ax or crampons needed. There was a negotiable moat on the right side. Assuming of course that you came down the ridge at the same spot we did. Looked like higher up would have sucked.

Edited September 9, 2006 by spotly