Sherpa Glacier Conditions and Stuart Decent Option

[hamballs]

Anyone know how the Sherpa Glacier is looking? I'm thinking its probably out but haven't heard for sure.

 

What are peoples favorite ways to get off Stuart? Last time I was there I swore never to walk down the Cascadian again.

 

West Ridge, Sherpa...?

[telemarker]

I kind of like the Cascadian descent because I can turn the mind off and the ipod up for a quick deproach. Another option is hike/climb over Sherpa to the Sherpa/Argonaut Col, then out Mountaineers creek. Yet another option is the nw buttress to Goat Pass. Yet another is downclimb the West Ridge. I think they're all pretty involved compared to the Cascadian.

[montypiton]

got a quick look this morning before the rain/mist settled in, (had hoped to nip up Argonaut, but not in the rain) and it looked to me like there's still enough snow in the couloir... snow cover is holding pretty late this year... the times I've used this descent I've preferred it to the southside and westside options... and as John says, if it don't look good from the top, you can always just traverse on over to the Sherpa/Argonaut col & back out mountaineer creek...

[Off_White]

Its not so much the Cascadian descent I don't care for, its the soul crushing plod up Longs Pass at the end of a long day. Kind of like the climb up out of Thornton Lakes after doing Triumph.

 

I've been down the Sherpa Couloir too late in the season and we had to rap the damn thing - it had an inch of wet slub over rock hard snow. Wish I'd known about the sherpa-argonaut option back then.

[dkatz12090]

Thinking to head up this next weekend. Anyone head up sherpa this weekend?

 

[ColinB]

@dkatz: We climbed far to climbers right and there's a solid fin of snow you can downclimb around the schrund. Not sure how long it'll last, but it was super solid yesterday. If that's not your cup of tea, there's a sketchy bollard of slush people have been rapping off of and somehow not dying...

[pms]

Another vote for Cascadian, love it. Not ideal, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way off this peak.

[counterfeitfake]

I'd like to know more about the NW buttress descent, does anybody have conclusive beta?

[pms]

pm me, and I can give second hand beta. Maybe draw a line on a picture for you.

[hefeweizen]

Its not so much the Cascadian descent I don't care for, its the soul crushing plod up Longs Pass at the end of a long day.

 

When I did the North Ridge a few weeks ago, we went in on the afternoon of day 1, over Long's Pass, and bivied at the bottom of the Cascadian at the enormous campground near the Ingalls Creek trail. We did the route on day 2, descending the Cascadian to our bivy and cold beer. The 3rd day, we woke up early and hiked out. Back in Leavenworth by noon.

 

Although this itinerary technically took 3 days, it's still only 48 hours. It was pretty comfortable and avoids the backtrack up to Ingalls Lake, which I've done before and been bummed. Descending the Cascadian while there was still some snow in it made it pretty nice, way less scree.