[TR] Alpine Lakes - NR of Mount Stuart-Serpentine Arete-Castle Rock 6/30/2008

[miker]

Trip: Alpine Lakes - NR of Mount Stuart-Serpentine Arete-Castle Rock

 

Date: 6/30/2008

 

Trip Report:

Here is how Ivan and my North Ridge of Stuart climbing trip worked out.

 

Basic plan: first day hike in 5 hours and climb all or most of the North Ridge of Stuart ~2800 ft of rock climbing from 6600ft-9400ft and bivying on top, 2nd and 3rd days work our way along ridge line hitting Sherpa, Argonaut, Colchuk and Dragontail Peaks and coming down Asgard Pass.

 

Here is what actually happened...

 

Left Ivan's house Sunday the 29th at ~8pm headed for the Stuart/Colchuk Lake trailhead. 5 hours of driving brought us to the trailhead parking lot.

 

Tried to sleep in the car until first light ~4:30 am when we kitted up drank our fill and ate a little breakfast before the hiking began.

 

Stats for the hike to Stuart

Trailhead~3600 ft

Base of North Ridge of Stuart ~6600ft

Total hike time~5 hours

 

The hike was gorgeous and took us through some amazing scenery which I will try to do justice to in some photos.

 

Mosquitoes were an issue throughout the entire trip.

We hiked up the Stuart Lake trail not turning left at the Colchuk lake trail at about 5000 feet. The Stuart Lake trail follows Mountaineer's creek and we left that trail turning left at some not entirely arbitrary point as we are not going to Stuart Lake, but to the base of Stuart's North Ridge. Ivan has done the trail before which was good as it is convoluted and rather sparsely marked or visible for some sections. When we came into view of the area we would be climbing in I was mesmerized by the scope of it all.

 

As we hit the first snow fields we met a mountain goat herd who were quite friendly and seemed to be sizing me up to determine if the salt in my sweaty clothes was worth attacking me for or not. They were all a little mangy looking just shedding their winter coats, but the very young kid with them was amazingly small and looked pretty new to the world.

 

We then tromp up the snow field as far as we can, the snow is fairly soft and kicking steps in it is quite easy at the low angle there. We hit the moraine ridge you can see in the picture and follow that up to the base of Stuart.

 

Now at the start of the actual climb, some initial scrambling gets us up to the first technical climbing which Ivan heads off on. Gets himself a little stuck in a squeeze chimney so leaves his pack behind and hauls it and mine up when I get to that point. I then head off on the second technical pitch which will be followed by a huge amount of very easy climbing, but lets not jump ahead...So I am having a few issues with a 5.8 crack that I am trying to lieback to get up. I fall once and decide to leave my pack hooked to the pro a few pieces down so I can make the moves easier. As I try the crux section one more time I am just getting my foot onto a little hummock and a quick step will have me on a nice ledge where I can slap in a piece and another 20 feet finishes the pitch, when I believe the hummock explodes in a cloud of dirt and I start falling. I fall 20 feet or so, but near the end of my fall I impact my backpack dead center with my right foot breaking its carry strap as I flip upside down. So as I look from my heels over head perspective I see my pack plummet 300 feet lightly impacting the wall once or twice before cratering on a rock ledge at the very base. Well, this is a pickle.

 

I do a quick assessment and I am physically ok, blood on both hands from some scrapes but nothing horrible, no other obvious pains or aches, but definitely feel like my bell was rung and adrenaline is kicking. Ivan and I discuss for a few minutes and basically agree that there is not way to finish the climb without my food, bivy gear, warm clothes etc etc, so we will have to descend. I clip a biner to a fixed rusty nut and clean the other gear as Ivan lowers me back to his position and we are able to do a couple raps down to my bag.

 

Amazingly enough nothing escaped my bag except one crampon did pop out of it's outside pocket on final impact. The bag is severely structurally impaired with a long rent along the bottom where the back panel meets the bottom of the bag. A number of other scrapes and holes exist and a couple straps have broken, but with a little work and a big sleeping bag roll at the bottom I can still hike with it.

 

But the contents of the bag were not all so lucky, the gps was toast, phone faceplate cracked and the ipod shuffles were dinged, but still worked. The peanut butter(a good dense protein source for this kind of effort I thought) had exploded all over the food bag along with a gel pack making everything oily and sticky at the same time. We did not travel with a stove, to keep it light, which is probably good as I would have hated to see my bag explode in a ball of flames on impact.

 

After resting and looking at our resources we decided to bivy there in a nice little rock bivy that had been built up by others. Got to sleep relatively early and again were up at 4:30 or so. The sliver of a moon was amazing as was the sunrise.

 

The issue before us was that my pack while hikeable was definitely not climbable or haulable so we could not head back up Stuart. So we looked for a simple climb we could travel light on with a single pack and perhaps bivy on the climb or finish quickly if we were strong. The decision was made based on Ivan's experience and knowledge of the area that the Serpentine Arete on Dragontail peak was appropriate and had a few good bivy locations and a lot of relatively easy climbing with a few pitches of fun technical stuff.

 

Unfortunately Dragontail is above Lake Colchuk which meant we had to descend all the way back down the trail to the turnoff and go up to Colchuck lake, this was a not insignificant 2000 feet of down and then back up over a number of miles, but we had no other easy options in this Cirque. So off we set down the moraine, across the snowfield and back onto the trail down into the marshy lowlands and mosquito heaven.

 

The trail up to Lake Colchuk was much more pronounced and easy to follow, but none the less still steep at points. Lake Colchuk itself when it finally came into view was quite spectacular and the ring of climbable rock around it was amazing. We hiked around the lake and then rested for an hour before caching the items we did not need in my pack and packing our two sleeping bags into a single stuff sack and our food and warm clothes into Ivan's bag with rack and rope and gear hanging wherever possible on me or in the bag if it fit.

 

We headed straight up the boulder field at the head of the lake which reminded me of the talus field by Jennie Lake or along the approach to Taqhuitz. I just love jumping from rock to rock like scrambling through the Wonderland of rocks in JT. There was a dirt trail going up between the rocks but it seemed dirty and slippery and unworthy of bearing my not insignificant weight, so I stuck to the rocks wherever possible. We then hiked up the snow field to the base and scrambled up 300 feet or more of easy 4th/low 5th class climbing before I decided we should rope up. We then simul-climbed a little and hit the fairly easy pitch which would lead us up to our planned bivy spot where we thought we might climb the next technical pitch this afternoon and setup our rope for the morning, but again, let's not jump ahead..Ivan is leading the relatively easy stuff just below the ledge and sets up a quick anchor to bring me up and then another 50 feet will get us to the big ledge. As I am coming up to his anchor rain is starting to fall and things are getting slippery, but I make it up to Ivan. We look at the skies and at each other and acting confident we say it will only last a few minutes like a lot of alpine thunderstorms. We are unfortunately traveling very light and our soft shells are only water resistant. We have a trash compactor bag, but it is keeping our sleeping bags dry, and my plastic bag is down in my pack covered with peanut butter. So the rain gets heavier then turns to hail and rain with hail getting up to marble sized, which really really hurts and I am glad I had a helmet on anyway.

 

We were on a fairly prominent rock arete so are safe from most rockfall and water drainage, but we are mesmerized watching the easy approach ledges we used to get up here being pummeled as the small little waterfall we used to fill our water bottles transformed into a raging dirty torrent with bigger and bigger rocks being shaken loose from higher up the drainage chute and wreaking havoc as they fall. We are meanwhile huddled close for warmth and starting to get a little nervous about whether this will last until the sun sets behind Colchuk leaving us in the dark and wet even if we make our bivy ledge, so after an hour of this we start working on our rapel with some trepidation. The final picture my camera was able to take before going dead due to humidity and being in my very wet pocket shows a very hazy view of Ivan disappearing over the edge as he raps down. Here is a picture of Ivan in his ghetto rain cape and me with a bit of fear in my eyes or maybe I am just cold .

We were able to scrabble around and find a couple anchors and leave a few items of our own to get us down to the ground over the next hour or so. Of course, just as we get within spitting distance of the ground the sun comes out, but with the ledges covered with hail and stuff still falling we can't go back up this today. After some discussion I state that I do not think I will be up for climbing this in the morning, both due to tiredness, worry about running out of food(lost my 2000 calories of peanut butter you know), and general lack of confidence after 2 days of epicness.

 

We then hike all the way out to the car, getting there after midnight. Along the way the easy trail was actually covered by the stream which was roaring due to all the runoff from the rainstorm we had been trapped in. Wish I had a working camera to capture the power and energy of the river as it rushed over the rocks. I myself took two wrong turns, but Ivan was able to stop me from trying to swim the river.

 

We crash pretty quick and are then up at 5:30 or so. We had thoughts about maybe trying to do Snow Creek Wall, but think the heat will be atrocious before to late into the day so we decide to go crag at Castle Rock, where I have been climbing, not for a very long time, but familiar territory. We ran up Catapult and then do the 2 pitches of the 5.8 Canary (well Ivan did those actually) to reach the summit.

 

WOOHOO!!! We got to the top of something....

 

Then the hike down to the car as the heat became ridiculous and we grabbed some burgers and decided to head home to surprise our wives by being home a day early to garner some brownie points for the next climbing trip.

 

So some other thoughts and insights I have gained from this trip.

 

The sad thing about the pack is that is was brand spanking new, I had literally received it in the mail on Saturday and left for this trip on Sunday and destroyed it by early Monday afternoon. Will have to send this report to the manufacturer to show how the pack performs under extreme acceleration and deceleration.

 

New rules for climbing and even camping backpacking in general.

1-No Peanut Butter/Gel-just to much potential to ruin your stuff and your experience. Had gel packs break before and I can get sugar from fruit snacks or jujubees without the attendant mess. Protein will just have to come from more stable jerky, nuts etc.

2-eliminate excess electronics as they just add weight and break easy.

 

What mistakes were made to lead us to where we ended up?

 

Well the main mistake that destroyed most of our options was my backpack loss. If I had lowered back down an extra 20 feet and left the bag with Ivan I would probably have been fine even with another fall. Should I have fallen? Perhaps not so far if I had just put in another piece, but being laid back I could not even see into the crack so was unable to really make a good placement. I also hung my pack by the carry strap on top, not through the shoulder straps which probably would not have ripped like the single strap did. But if it had held I have a feeling I would have snapped or sprained my ankle or leg when I hit the pack so directly.

 

The rain/hail was unfortunate, we knew that if we had been on our original plan, we would have been on a high ridgeline during a lightning storm, but with all our gear we think we could have weathered it. With less gear we were just a little exposed to potential cold issues. If we had not been able to rap and had spent the night on the wall we would have been uncomfortable, but would have survived.

 

As far as how I fared physically and mentally let us make a list of injuries.

 

1-Abrasions to palms of both hands and inside left forearm

2-Bruise along back of left thigh where my harness caught the energy of the fall not taken up by the pack. Purple and yellow stripe.

3-Second toe on each foot hurts like the bejeesus, mostly due to the extensive up and down with my rigid Sportiva boots which are a size 43.5 and should probably be a size 44.

4-Many mosquito bites even with mosquito net hats and lots of DEET.

5-A few welts on the back from the hail on the shoulders.

6-Mentally strong, a little peeved at the sequence of things that kept us from climbing two rocks I know I am completely capable of finishing, but very happy that I was able to do all the hiking and climbing without much incident other than the above noted issues. Legs are much stronger this time as versus my last alpine hike (Burgandy Col) with too much weight and no endurance. The biking defintely helps and I need to keep that going along with more long training hikes up dog mountain, Hamilton mountain and whatever else I can find to hike the crap out of.

 

Anyway, I can only hope to make it back to that area next year. Can't do it this year as new baby time is coming fast and by the time baby is a month old and I can abandon it with the wife the weather will start to be unpredictable in that area and Ivan will have blown his alpine wad.

 

Thank you for reading all the way to the end.

 

Gear Notes:

Very basic rack to Camalot 3.5. Single skinny rope doubled over for all activities.

 

Approach Notes:

Lots of hiking, but Ivan knew the way, could easily get lost trying to find trail to NR.

[JoshK]

Ivan is an epic-magnet!

 

The sad thing about the pack is that is was brand spanking new, I had literally received it in the mail on Saturday and left for this trip on Sunday and destroyed it by early Monday afternoon. Will have to send this report to the manufacturer to show how the pack performs under extreme acceleration and deceleration.

 

Ouch, that just stings...

 

[rob]

Sounds like a time. It was nice to meet you on the trail. We were thinking about you guys when the hail came, while eating sausages and drinking beer.

[ivan]

frak'n awesome!

 

my favorite part of the trip was watching the 8-or-so hours of mike's catatonic despair after returning to the stuart bivy

 

i thought our training regime of running up dog mtn in the pouring rain while chain-smoking and pounding pbr's every 500 foot was excellent conditioning for what we encountered!

[goatboy]

This is one of the best TR's ever.

 

Glad you fellows are okay! Way to be persistant!

[ericb]

Ivan's TR implied this was your first climb??? first outdoor, first trad, first "alpine"???

[spiderman]

Nice TR! I won't carry the jelly GU anymore either. That stuff is a mess! Cliff Bar has come out with "Shot Blocks" that are the same as GU, but solid and chewable. They're the bomb!!!

[sobo]

Ivan's TR implied this was your first climb??? first outdoor, first trad, first "alpine"???

Yes, I recall this comment, too. Please, do tell, mike.

 

In other news, I think this is the best TR pic evuh!

 

[ivan]

mike's been to the burgundy area b4 and done some stuff in california, but this was his first "real" trip - i thought dragging him across all the stuart traverse peaks would be a fine introduction

 

and shit, at least you can see him in that pic - where's the money shot of him taking a hailstone to the nose?

[fheimerd]

Pdk and where up in the colchuck area the day of that storm. We just got back to the tent after climbing serpentine when it started hailing marble size chunks of ice. On the hike out we heard about a party on the ridge. That must have been you guys. It's good to hear you're ok. We where wondering who gets on a big ridge climb in the afternoon as clouds are beginning to build. Only the bold I dare say, only the bold.

[Bug]

Bold or..........

 

Ivan.

[Rad]

quote=fheimerd]We where wondering who gets on a big ridge climb in the afternoon as clouds are beginning to build. Only the bold I dare say, only the bold.

 

Some might choose other adjectives.

 

I, for one, am very glad that your creativity in staying warm and getting off safely trumped your (insert adjective) decision to head up a big alpine ridge into the teeth of a gathering storm without protective gear. In any case, it sounds like you have a firm grasp of all the factors that contributed to the situation so you don't need Monday morning QBs. Besides, I've certainly done foolish things and been spanked by Mother Nature.

 

Thank you, sir, may I have another!?

[ivan]

i was confident i'd be able to get up or down the route no matter what as i'd done it a # of times - we had bivy gear and cigarettes and a head-full of crazy - there was actually no storm-sign at the lake prior to us heading up around 1 or so, and the storm came from the south and east, where we couldn't see (and still couldnt' even as we left the snow)- furthermore, the huge t-storm that had rolled through the day earlier hadn't touched anything in the range despite the light show, plus that day was cooler and calmer then the preceeding one, so i felt it was a calculated risk

 

finally, in an homage to my mother stone of beacon, i've gotten rather innured in the past year or two to climbing rock in shitty, shitty conditions

[Rad]

so i felt it was a calculated risk

 

Life without risk is like pancakes without syrup: not as sweet!

 

[miker]

I have been climbing for 12+ years, but Burgandy Spires was my only other "alpine" type climbing trip, you know with snow in the way

 

I have climbed Fairview Dome Regular Route, Royal Arches, Cat in the Hat, Frogland, many climbs at Joshua Tree, Williamson, Smith, Index, Exit 38, El Do, Static Point, Beacon, Holcomb Valley, Frenchman Coullee, Bart Dome, Leavenworth, Taqhuitz/Suicide, Granite Point, Peshashtin, Mount Lemmon, Central Park...and a few others but my brain is empty.

 

I bought these shiny crampons and an axe as Ivan got me more alpinterested, but the only dings on the crampons so far are from the fall off of Stuart...

 

Oh well I got a new baby coming in a month, so probably no more big trips this year...just a shiteload of Beacon and gorge-type climbing where I am reachable by phone.