[TR] Mt. Stuart - West Ridge 8/21/2010

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Trip: Mt. Stuart - West Ridge

 

Date: 8/21/2010

 

Trip Report:

Not a whole lot to add beta wise, but it was a great day out on Saturday! Brendan and I met up at 3:40 AM in Seattle and headed towards the Teanaway hitting the trail around 6:15 AM.

 

 

We hiked in an took a little break to water up at Ingalls lake and then headed down the trail/ridge to the base of the route (3.5 hrs). Here despite our scoping on the hike in we traversed a little bit past the second gulley and headed up the next one. We soon realized our mistake but were able to angle up and hit the correct gulley a bit higher without any trouble. We knew we were back on route when we hit the preponderance of bivy sites.

 

 

 

We really enjoyed the clean granite of the gulley and found the reasonable 4th class route on the right up to Long John Tower. We passed a party of four just before the "tunnel underfoot" and continued along with fun scrambling. The route to the notch was obvious except for where we got to BSing and got confused about which notch was which. We roped up just above the notch and simuled for about 70 meters around onto the north side and back to the south and to the sandy ledge. Brendan wanted to hog the lead to the summit but I made him give me the gear and I headed up what we figured was the 5.4 bit. As others have noted, there has been some fresh rockfall here and there is a fair bit of pretty unstable rock up there. It was unpleasant and I wouldn't recommend that route if you are not comfortable leading around large loose blocks. I managed to stem around it just fine and headed to the summit with Brendan in tow.

 

 

 

 

(looking up from the sandy ledge as I enter the fresh scar area)

 

Here we joined the party on top as it seemed most everyone was coming up at the same time from different directions (a couple parties on the North Ridge, coming up the Cascadian, and the party an hour or so behind us). It took us about 4 hours on the route which we were happy with for our first time on that side of the mountain. After a nice break we started down the Cascadian.

 

 

I wasn't expecting much, but the Cascadian was long and unpleasant although I think we found the proper route down the right hand branch and were down at the trail 3 hours later after some sore knee resting breaks. We shared some snacks with the couple who had bivied on the North Ridge and still had to walk back to their car at the Colchuck TH, and then headed back uphill towards Long Pass. We made it back to the car around 7:30, just in time to hit the little BBQ place in Cle Elum.

 

 

 

All in all, another great trip with on of my longest standing partners! Brendan made this awesome track on his Android with My Tracks as we went:

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

We took way too much, woulda been fine with a 30 meter rope and 5-6 pieces of gear. No axe or crampons needed anymore, didn't take em).

 

Approach Notes:

Get up early, drive, hike to the lake, follow the trail along the ridge, don't pass the correct gulley.

[zoroastr]

...forgive me...

 

[spotly]

 

Nice TR and some excellent shots of the route. I recall the gully being some of the funner climbing on the route - 3rd and 4th class forever and ever and ever....

[OlympicMtnBoy]

I'm going to have to have Porter change my title to Marilyn Monroe now. I'm glad someone recognized my beautiful pearly whites.

[pacific_mtn]

Some more pictures here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/brendan.mcmahan/MountStuartWestRidgeClimb

[zoroastr]

OMB...thx for not getting pissed at my silliness. BTW: you're route on Stuart looks REALLY nice! I'm going to pitch it to my partner and hopefully snag it before the snows fly...

Thanks!

[mountainmatt]

Looks like a nice time Brendan and Stewball (aka. Stewart Monroe)!

 

The android mapping feature is pretty cool as well. I assume it doesn't need a cell signal to make the map (ie. has some internal GPS?)

 

 

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[yikes]

Looks like good fun!

I've been toying with several GPS android apps too. How did you get the tracks overlaid on the oblique view of Stuart?