Stuart approach/descent?

[bigeo]

Planning to do the complete NR next weekend and would like to do something other than Ingall's in, Cascadian out, for a change. Mt's Creek in sounds reasonable, but I assume the Sherpa gl. descent would be a bad choice this late in the season. A friend of mine said he has descended by traversing on the south side and climbing back up to Sherpa Pass and then going down the Mt's Creek (S. fork?) drainage gully. Looks ok on the map. Anybody done this?

[AlpineK]

When I did the route we did a rap off the top and downclimbed the West Ridge. That went pretty smoothly.

[bigeo]

I only have a 50% average for finding my way up the W Ridge, and the failure came after the success, so getting down it seems iffy. Thanks for the input.

[Mark_L]

Years ago (about 1980) I traversed from the top of the Sherpa Glacier across the South slope above Ingall's creek to Sherpa Pass and I recall it being pretty straighforward. When you descend the Mountaineer Creek valley there is a big timber blowdown above where the trail up to Stuart takes off, but the route is completely non technical.

[bigeo]

Did the N ridge this weekend. We bivied at the top and had snow and poor vis. on Sunday morning. In spite of that, the descent went reasonably smoothly. We descended to about 6200' before making our way back up to the Sherpa/Argonaut Col. I think that is the key to this descent: get down and E. far enough so you can see your route up to the pass, rather than trying to traverse high. We were able to skirt what is left of the snowfield on the N. side of the pass and the descent down the scree and talus was quick and easy. Following the valley bottom down along the creek wasn't bad; there was even a trail at times. We intersected the Stuart Lk trail below the first switchback, missing all that boulder hopping we did on the approach. Summit to car took 9 1/2 hours in spite of slow going on snow covered rock and in poor vis. near the top. While this is longer than descending the the cascadian, it seems like a better option for the complete NR considering we didn't need axes or pons and the time saved on the approach.

P.S. Watch out for viscious downed logs.

http://picasaweb.google.com/funhaugs2000/NRidgeStuartAug07/photo?authkey=v2QfIuuZgMw#5103464987931309058

Edited August 27, 2007 by bigeo

[jport]

Nice work Bigeo!

We started the North Ridge only to retreat when we saw the clouds moving in. Later, we were glad not to be on the ridge in that wind and wet.

You must have been the party of two that was starting the second pitch when we arrived at the base, Saturday morning (8:30ish). Thanks for the loud "ROCK" call, too We were able to dodge the large bits, but a tiny pebble tapped my helmet. No harm done.

Next time, I'll seriously consider approaching via Mountaineer's Creek.

 

 

[bigeo]

Honest, we didn't send those rocks down to scare you off. Wondered what happened to you two. We were hoping you weren't bivied somewhere on the route Sat. night. I am now a firm believer in the Mts.Creek approach if your are going to do the CNR. I would probably give the Sherpa Gl. descent a go earlier in the season, but coming down via Sherpa pass worked fine for us.

[Bug]

I was on the lower NR several years ago when a VW van size block came off from way high. The ground was shaking, we were screaming our approval and so were the guys above us. It was spectacular. That's the nice thing about climbing ridges, rock fall goes left or right.