Stuart False Summit descent question

[Jimmy J]

I had an interesting personal first ascent of Stuart this Spring, soloing up Ulrich's on a very warm day in May. While finishing the summit, going left instead straight to the top due to soft snow concerns, I had my first experience of watching my boot track slowly disappear below me with an unnerving schussing sound, as the top inch or so of the trail was sluffing away and down into the top of the couloir below. While this was quite exciting regardless of the secure feeling of my boot placements, it wasn't as exciting as descending off the shoulder of the false summit, downclimbing face-in, above a rockband below. I did a descending traverse to get past athe rockband below to hit the "open" snow slope below into the boulder field. I'd guess the upper traverse slope angle to be may be 40-45 degrees, it seemed pretty steep with a couple small bergschrunds to cross. It was pretty obvious there was just a slab face underneath most of this upper section, my axe banging off the rock underneath a couple of times. I have no idea if this is the standard "winter/snow" route off to get to the easier couloirs below, but I did follow some tracks to this point of descent off the top. So, is this one of the standard descent routes to access the Cascadian or more Easterly couloirs off the top?

[canyondweller]

That sounds right to me.

[Jimmy J]

Thanks for the input. Firmer snow would have been a lot less exciting.