[TR] Mount Stuart- Complete North Ridge 7/22/2006

[Jerm]

Climb: Mount Stuart-Complete North Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 7/22/2006

 

Trip Report:

We approached via Mountaineer Creek, which was nice fast and easy compared to the slog up from Ingalls. Only tricky part was finding the route through the woods after turning off the Stuart Lake trail. The turnoff was flagged at the first switchback leading to Stuart Lake, but the trail quickly peters out, with a faint track going down toward the main creek, and another going across. We went across and found the route again at a log crossing the creek coming from Stuart Lake. This led to a cairned route across the base of talus slopes (big blocks, stable for the most part). There is apparently a better route along the stream, but we stuck to what we had rather than waste time bushwhacking. We eventually hit the other route near some waterfalls below a hanging vally just below treeline, then followed a nice path through flat woods to the base of the Ice Cliff moraine. All in all, a great way to get to the route with minimal fuss and aggravation, although you end up adding to the agony of descent (more on that...).

 

The route:

We linked pitches and managed to do the lower section in 4 rope lengths, then switched to simul-climbing at the knife edge where the lower west variation joins. We found the crack pitch above the 5.8 slot to be the hardest, kinda flared and a bit awkward, but well protected. On our last (failed) attempt we had bypassed this via easier but dirty terrain to the right.

 

Simul climbing increased our speed by several orders of magnitude, and we were at the notch early. Rather than press on, we chilled out, melted water (there was plenty of snow nearby), and did what we could to enjoy a beautiful sunset while being devoured by mosquitoes. Also at the notch were Rob and Jeff, who crossed the glacier and arrived just after we did.

 

After a fitful night fighting bugs, watching a party climb by headlamp high above, and little sleep, we set out around 6 in a cloud of insects. Simul-climbing as fast as we could, we lost the bugs somewhere around pitch 5, crossed some cool knife edges, and arrived at the Gendarme around 8:30, I think. We decided to haul our packs up the first 2 Gendarme pitches, which kinda sucked (especially on the second one).It was nice to climb unhindered though, and our fears of scary laybacking and offwidthing turned out to be unfounded. Both pitches were pretty fun.

 

From a notch above the Gendarme there was one more unexpected short-but-hard crack and then more simul climbing to the top, which we reached just before noon.

 

None of the descent options particularly appealed to us, but after lots of hemming and hawing, we decided on the West Ridge, figuring the traffic it gets would make it easier to follow.

 

We made about 7 single rope rappels along the route, and I know others will want details so here's how it went:

 

Downclimb south from the the summit to a small bivy. Turn right over the south rib and either downclimb a short crack to an exposed rap station at a block (we used green rap slings with rings), or set a rappel higher up that gets you here. Rap down and right (to climbers left, our 60m single rope just barely reached) to the end of a ledge that you can walk/climb across to a notch in West Ridge ("tiny notch" on Beckey topo). Downclimb ridge for 50 feet or so to a rap station below a block. One rap to big ledge (bivies), and another to ledges above the main West Ridge Notch. Downclimb down gully, and traverse right, looking for ledges to take you toward Long John Tower. Cross talus slope and walk behind crescent shaped snow patch on the third large ledge system you can see below the West Horn. Find a rap station on the rib beyond this, two raps from here (we added a second station, downclimb to a horn to get to it) get you to the bottom of a gully, follow a goat trail up this gully and across ledges (short belly crawl) to the LJT notch. From the notch, go down and sligthly right to a set of shallow chimneys, we downclimbed half of the one on the left (climbers right) to a horn and did another rappel there. Downclimb ledges down and right (snow here) until you can climb over into the adjacent gully to the north. Downclimb this gully past two notches on your right. When you see some sandy tree ledges to the right (just past a small smooth headwall), follow them right and make a rap from a tree into the next gully, then cross through the second notch below that rap to the lower west ridge and 2nd class terrain. From here it is obvious, just walk down the ridge.

 

With all the head scratching, rap threading, and lunch eating we did it took us almost 6 hours to get down to the ridge this way, but if you can find the raps and are quick with your downclimbing it could probably be done in 4 hours or less (summit to Stuart->Goat Pass path).

 

After we refilled our water at snowpatches on the NW "rock glacier" we popped some vitamin I and sprinted as best we could up to Goat Pass. From there some boot skiing along the moraine got us into another mosquito hell, and we pretty much ran down the gully below the Stuart Glacier (muddy and loose in places). If you take this descent, MAKE SURE you go down the big canyon/gully you can see extending below the NW Buttress, everything else cliffs out. We did not know this and got lucky with our chouice. In the gully, we stayed to the left and followed talus as low as we could. A rough trail took us along the west edge of the meadow/bog. We lost it a bunch, but usually found it soon after by heading uphill a bit. Soon after the bog it crosses a river, and from there on it was smooth sailing all the way to the TH. We finally got down around midnight, and stopped only once along the way to pull pebbles out of our shoes.

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

9.1mm x 60m rope. Normal rack up to 4", some extra slings and 4 rap rings. Bivy gear.

 

Approach Notes:

See TR.

[rob]

Great weather for it, that weekend. You must have had one hell of a view.

 

Nice TR, thanks