[TR] Mt. Stuart - Complete North Ridge 8/19/2012

[jayhawk]

Trip: Mt. Stuart - Complete North Ridge

 

Date: 8/19/2012

 

Trip Report:

Matt, Steve, Seby, and I all climbed the amazing complete North Ridge on Saturday and Sunday, including the Great Gendarme. What a stellar route! I would definitely echo those who've gone before me by saying that Stuey is just a big friggin' mountain! There is plenty of good beta out there, but I just wanted to add my $0.02 on tactics. We approached via the Ingalls side, Goat Pass, and skirted along the edge of the Stuart Glacier. It would have been possible to keep entirely to the lateral moraine with barely any unneccesary distance to reach the toe of the ridge. But the snow was fairly soft so crossing the glacier was not too bad for us in approach shoes only. I think that the lower North Ridge (East Side variation in Beckey guide) is totally worth the extra work. The rock is super clean and the 5.9 dihedral is rad! We used a half rope doubled over for the technical pitches. We had to climb the 5.7 crack, the 5.8 squeeze chimney, and the 5.9 dihedral on the lower ridge separately, but both of the gendrame pitches were doable with 30m. The rest of the climb we simuled with approach shoes. The fixed #4 still exists on pitch 2 of the Great Gendarme. As stated earlier, the second one has been bootied, but is not necessary anyway. We were able to find running water on the Stuart Glacier, a small snowpatch at the notch, and a good-sized snowpatch at the summit. The snowpatch at the notch probably has two weeks of life left. It is down a gulley toward the Ice Cliff Glacier, and we set up a hand line for climbing back up as it was quite chossy. Now for some pics:

 

First 5.7 pitch on the lower ridge:

Steve on the 5.9 dihedral:

Commonly photographed slab below the gendarme:

Josh on Great Gendarme P1:

Matt on Great Gendarme P2:

Summit smoke!

Seby and Steve on the final summit ridge:

 

Gear Notes:

Green thru red Alien, 0.5 to #3 Camalot, with doubles from 0.75 to 2, single set of nuts

7.7mm 60m rope

Approach shoes, no crampons or ice axe

 

Approach Notes:

Ingalls Lake

[denalidave]

Sweet!

[magellan]

Sweet route. Can I take some noobs up the CC in trailrunners or are axe and pons still necessary

[jayhawk]

No axes or pons necessary, there is no snow in the CC right now. But plenty of sand and loose rubble!

[trees4me]

Is there a snow patch by the false summit still? We're hoping that some of that patch is still left for water.

 

cool climb, nicely done.

[Verticolorful]

there is still water near the summit in the CC i was just up there two days ago

[kevino]

You got some great photos of that route.

 

There was an accident up there on the 22nd on the approach to the climb. I ran into some guys and it sounds like they got out the injured party's gear but incase anyone finds more just giving you a heads up.

[saxybrian]

Accident happened, and climber is in good shape. Apparently there was a rock slide that had knocked him off a 30ft cliff and broke his fib/tib. Was able to get a heli flight out the following day after his partner raced down to get cell reception.

 

Kudo's to him and he should be back up and running hopefully by next summer.

 

Not going to throw names or anything since I'm not sure if he wants any of this on the net, but did want to say he is doing fine and in great spirits.

 

[kurthicks]

There is also a tiny snow patch about a rope length down the Ice Cliff side from the Notch as of a week ago. Running water about half way down the Cascadian on the left too!