[TR] Mt. Stuart - Complete North Ridge (2 days) 8/11/2007

[fenderfour]

Trip: Mt. Stuart - Complete North Ridge (2 days)

 

Date: 8/11/2007

 

Trip Report:

My first summit on Stuart was along this delightful route. There isn't too much to be said that has already been said by better climbers.

 

We went in via Ingalls Way, around the lake to Goat Pass and down to the lower ridge. This is a ton of work. I can't really recommend it.

 

The lower ridge was fun, but it only added length to the climb. The first technical pitch with the wide crack wasn't sustained enough (two moves) to make it very interesting. The second pitch was sustained and excellent climbing in a shallow flaring finger crack. The other technical pitches were fun, but not memorable.

 

Running belays went on forever and lead us to the notch where we bivied. It was a very cold night with only a puffy jacket and a bivy sack as clouds and snow flurries rolled in.

 

The morning was cold. It was snowing. We climbed anyways.

 

My partner (Racsom) and I put on every stitch of clothing we had and climbed. The pitches leading to the gendarme were a hoot, even in minor snow flurries. The Gendarme was amazing. I got to lead the wide pitch and I wish I had a #4 cam.

 

Standard fair after that to the summit. My only question - who dropped a giant shit on the ledge just below the summit? For f*ck's sake, it stunk up about 50 meters of climbing around it, and it was cold outside (45 degrees or so). There were other places you could have left Mr. Hankey.

 

Oh, and kudos to you hardmen that are doing this route in a day. That is a piece of work.

 

Approach Notes:

Don't go in through Ingalls Lake.

 

Descending the Cascadian sucks, but not as much as people say it does.

[rob]

right on dude

[kevbone]

Great job....I bived on the half way point about 9 years ago....very cool place to spend the night.

 

 

Me just before sunset on the half way bivy ledge 9 years ago.

 

You say not to go over Ingalls pass.....is that not the crux of Stuart? You have to traverse that huge MT one way or another. You could approach via 11 worth....but how would you get down?

[fenderfour]

Go earlier season via Mountaineer's Creek and descend the Sherpa Glacier.

[catbirdseat]

I heard plenty of people say the descent of the Sherpa is long and tedious. Certainly it would be better to go that way early in the season.

 

The remaining option is the car shuttle, which is what I'd do if I were going to do the complete ridge.

[kevbone]

Car shuttle? With gas prices what they are? That is an expensive trip.

[Blake]

To offer another view, I thought the approach wasn't very bad at all... just do it early when it is shady and cool or still dark. I think a Car shuttle would be so much more work! South-side in a day is the way to go.. and \\the best and hardest pitch on the ridge was the sustained fingercrack/corner thingy on p2 or p3 of the lower ridge. There's a stuck #4 Camalot on the Gendarme pitch, so you can get by with a 3.5 friend and then clip the fixed piece.

 

Nice job climbing through the snow... what happened to August?

[pink]

snap...snap...

[fenderfour]

Blake - I read the TR that Gary posted on your trip. Nice work!

 

Gary - thanks for the pics of the start & crux. They were very useful.

 

A picture from another party on the gendarme bypass. Thanks jaredvg

 

 

[kevino]

That looks amazing.

[Alpinfox]

 

 

That's a sweet shot. I've never seen a picture from that angle before.

 

So has anyone climbed that nice crack below the pillar?

[gary_hehn]

Nice job f4! Yes, ballsy climbing through the snow. You two must have been pretty hungry for it, especially after a cold bivy.

 

I've asked cc.com before, but haven't gotten a response so, I'll try again. Has anyone here tried descending the West Ridge and Northwest Buttress as Kearney suggests in "Classic Climbs of the Northwest"? I tried a recon of it once, planned to ascend and descend the route to access its feasibility, but we got rained and I mean RAINED out. Fortunately, we aborted at Goat Pass just as the rain moved in.

[Bug]

Both are workable descents. The W Ridge is more obvious and cleaner rock. The NW buttress is tricky to start (from top down) and has a lot of loose rock but rap stations are well placed. We were CONSTANTLY afraid of bringing rocks down on ourselves. Bring extra gear to leave as some stations may be trashed by rockfall.

[gary_hehn]

Thanks for the feedback on WR/NW Butt descent Bug. Sounds like a bit of a pile, which is what I expected. Kearney makes it sound like one can down climb for the most part. But, I suspect he is a tad over the top for most of us.

[Bug]

There IS a lot of downclimbing 3rd and 4th class. It was still scary due to loose rock stuck on all the low angle rock.