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[TR] Mount Stuart - SGC 5/29/2007


esugi

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Trip: Mount Stuart - SGC

 

Date: 5/29/2007

 

Trip Report:

My partner and I did SGC yesterday. We hiked in Sunday and left camp at 3:00am. Complete report to come tomorrow but just wanted to let you all know that there was plenty of ice in the couloir (making for some fun climbing of moderate difficulty!)

 

We did get lost on the summit pyramid though. Eventually needing 9 pitches and losing some 3-4 hours of valuable time and furstration factor :mad:. We didn't get back to camp until 5pm or so (but had fun glissading the lower part of Sherpa Glacier).

 

Pictures coming too.

 

So here's couple questions on approach. :confused: Once crossing the river (from the standard trail) and onto the climbing trail, do you drop down towards the other stream or do you continue contouring around prominant peak and through the boulder field? We found cairns through the boulder so that's the way we went on approach. But hiking out, we ended up lower and practically hiking next to the creek before cutting up and finding the crossing??? We didn't even hit the boulder field hiking out.

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the boulder field is a bad, bad place - i think some mischeavous marmot put all the cairns up there just to fawk w/ the tourists - it's best to stay down by the creek - all in all, the best time to walk up that damn creek is in winter/spring, when there's a boot pack to follow!

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Kevin and I had struck out on Triple Couloirs on Dragontail few weeks back due to weather and Coleman Headwall on Baker due to my leg cramps so we were desparate to get up something. We had been eyeing SGC for couple of months and after reading a TR, we decided to go for it. Weather was warm Friday and Saturday but the freezing level was dropping down to 5500 ft on Sunday night so our planned Monday morning ascent seemed perfect.

 

Left the TH at around 2pm and got up to high camp at 6:30pm on Sunday. We ended up going through the boulder field...which is not recommended as I learned after this climb. :(

After cursing and wondering through the boulder field, we found the moraine where the usual high camp is (at the bottom of IceCliff and Sherpa Glaciers).

 

We woke up at 2:00am and off at 3:00am. Got to the base of couloir in 2 hours and headed up the couloir with me on lead. The bergschrund is easily skirted to the right. No problems.

SGC_Bottom_Couloir_11.jpg

 

There's still plenty of snow and ice in the couloir.

 

Following the soloist (John), we climbed the couloir to the notch with no problems. Thanks John for kicking the steps! Only thing is I wished I had 3 screws (I only carried one stubby).

 

Approaching the first ice step.

SGC_Approaching_Ice_2.jpg

 

Climbing the upper portion of the couloir.

SGC_Upper_Couloir_3.jpg

 

Once at the notch, John (the soloist), was contemplating down climbing the west ridge after seeing all the ice on the summit pyramid. We offered to tie him in on our rope and our 2 man team became a 3 man.

 

Summit Pyramid from the notch.

SGC_Summit_Pyramid_4.jpg

 

Following the Nelson guidebook, Kevin lead pitch 1 across the Class 3 traverse.

SGC_Pitch_1_Traverse_5.jpg

 

After the second pitch, we got off route and ended up going more towards the south side. Not recommended! Our variation consisted of short pitch of 5.9 exposed climbing. With a 3 man team and being off route, we wasted a lot of time.

 

Eventually, we found the correct line and reached the summit.

SGC_Summit_6.jpg

 

Overall, a fantastic climb through the couloir but somewhat frustrating and our pitch 3 faux pas cost us a lot of time!! Oh well, it was fun anyway. :cool: I was so tired though that I did not get back to the car until 9pm, just beating the light of day.

 

Gear Notes: No snowshoes, 2 tools, 10 cm ice screw (should have had 2 more, 10 to 13cm), assortment of nuts, cams from 0.5 to 2, 60 m rope

 

 

 

 

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I was looking for someplace to place rock pro but....I may have missed it completely. My partner belayed me first but we ended up simul-climbing after not finding a good place for belay. Again, did I miss it???

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