Riley81 Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 (edited) Trip: Mt. Stuart - Complete North Ridge (CNR) Date: 7/21/2012 Trip Report: This weekend my partner and I climbed the Complete North Ridge of Mt. Stuart. We decided it would be fun to travel across the range as well so we parked one car at the Ingalls lake TH and drove the second car to the Mountaineers Creek TH to spend the night on Friday night. We started out Saturday Morning at 5:15 AM. and hit the Base of the route, ~6600 ft. at 9:15 AM. We climbed the lower ridge, east variation, in 4 pitches and 3 leads of simulclimbing. The first pitch was up through the squeeze slot, the second up to the top of the 5.9+ layback, and two more enjoyable pitches of 5.7, before simulclimbing to the Notch, ~8200 ft., where the upper ridge starts. We finished at at around 2:00 PM. A party of two were starting off the CNR right in front of us and going car to car, hope you guys meet with success. The notch at the start of the Upper ridge is a beautiful place to sleep and a perfect split of two long days of climbing. A father son team showed up at the notch a little later in the day to climb the upper north ridge. They climbed quite effeciently as they kept up with us up to the great gendarme as we simuled and they pitched things out. I hope you guys enjoyed your stint in the cascades. We started out Sunday morning from the notch at about 6:00 AM and simulclimbed in 3 leads to the gendarme. From here we broke the gendarme into two pitches, the layback to the block, and up the offwidth to the top of the gendarme; there are now two fixed pieces in the offwidth, a #4 and a #4.5 camalot. After the gendarme we traversed one pitch to set up for the last pitch of 5.8. We finished up to the summit in one more long simul lead. We topped out at around 11:30 am. Spent a little while at the summit and descended the Cascadian Couloir. We hiked out across longs pass and were down to the car by 5:00 PM. With shuttling the cars I was home by 10:00. An amazing weekend on a beautiful mountian. Both the upper and lower ridges have great rock quality, and some amazing features along with almost 3,000 vert. ft. of rock to climb! Now for lots of Pictures for lots of climbing: North ridge on the approach. Lower N. Ridge East Variation. Starts at treed bench. Working the squeeze slot on the first pitch. Lower ridge 4th pitch of 5.fun climbing. Lower portion of Ice Cliff Glacier. Simuling lower ridge. Lower ridge beauty. Nice marker for end of lower ridge at notch. Sweet bivy spot. Bivy panorama. Climbers approaching across Stuart Glacier for upper N. ridge. Stuart Glacier Couloir. Mountaineers Creek. Ice Cliff Glacier Couloir and Girth pillar. Glacier Peak. Bed time view. Sunset over Mt. Daniel. Simuling on upper ridge below gendarme. Great ridge climbing. Father/Son team, stunning exposure. Fun slab just below gendarme. When we got to the gendarme I noticed a climber on Girth Pillar. Now heres the thing, they had to climb the ice cliff glacier to get to this point. And the second climber was jugging a line to get to this climber at the anchor. Girth pillar is an insane climb that puts all of your alpine skills to use. Hope you guys had a good day on the pillar! Styling the first pitch of the gendarme. Puting in work on the second pitch, linked up what Becky calls two pitches to the top of the gendarme. Lots of exposure to start this pitch. Finishing up the last pitch to the top of the gendarme. Author leading the 5.8 pitch just after the gendarme. More simuling to the summit. Finishing up the climbing. That is one BIG ridge! Enchantments core area from the summit. Parting shot of the south side of Stuart from Longs Pass. Gear Notes: 50 m 8.5 mm rope Double cams from tips to hands, a few smaller cams, two #4, and a #5 camalot. (only needed one #4 as there are two fixed pieces in the off width pitch) single set of nuts with a few offsets. More gear = longer simul blocks. (Lots of long runners) Ice axe was nice for descent, but bring a short one. Crampons were not used, but snowfields still exist in the upper portion of the Cascadian. Edited July 24, 2012 by Riley81 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJaso Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 (edited) SWEEEEET! Thanks for the post. Contemplating going out that way this weekend. Edited July 24, 2012 by MJaso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genepires Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 very nice. now if more people could get gear overcammed and stuck, we could have a alpine sport climb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Good report! *note* Girth Pillar parties often go over the N ridge to approach to the upper rock section, Rather than starting with the Ice Cliff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genepires Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 from john frieh's facebook page "A pic from Colin Bohannan mid-send of Mt. Stuart's Girth Pillar over the weekend...nice job guys!" mystery solved! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Looks like you guys had fun up there! Sweet photo you got of my buddy while I was jugging up to him. We saw you over on the gendarme and waved. Wayne, we did climb the Ice Cliff to get up there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyson.g Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Nice one D! You boys got some great shots to boot. That bivy site looks phenomenal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrex Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Wow..Strong work and great pictures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichDraves Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Did you find running water anywhere along the route? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivan Posted July 24, 2012 Share Posted July 24, 2012 Looks like you guys had fun up there! Sweet photo you got of my buddy while I was jugging up to him. We saw you over on the gendarme and waved. Wayne, we did climb the Ice Cliff to get up there. more pix or it didn't happen! sure, stuie's n ridge is big n' cool, but if ye haven't set your eyes on slesse.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley81 Posted July 24, 2012 Author Share Posted July 24, 2012 Strong work colinB. It was really cool to see you guys hanging in space over the ice cliff. Rich- The only free water, which is not a good water source, I saw on the route would be in the gully one would use to bypass the gendarme. But the snow patch at the notch probably has a few weeks left in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TripleSinEBs Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Riley81, You replied to Rich that water would be available in the gully that bypasses the Gendarme (i.e. the Regular N Ridge route). What did the gully conditions look like? Snow in there? Saw it from a distance this weekend and it looked like it might be snowy up in that section. Also, do you know if people who were accessing the ridge via the normal snow gully felt like crampons were essential for the glacier crossing to the gully? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley81 Posted July 26, 2012 Author Share Posted July 26, 2012 Triplesin- the water in the gully was minor snow melt from a few small dirty sections of snow just above where you might traverse. Overall the gully lloked doable, but unpleasent. As far as the crampons go, not sure. I don't know if the party that came up in the evening used crampons to cross the Stuart Glacier. I would think they would be nice to have if you wanted to cross the glacier early in the day though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shapp Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 You are a Pimp! nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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