[TR] Mt. Stuart - Complete North Ridge 6/22/2013

[hamballs]

Trip: Mt. Stuart - Complete North Ridge

 

Date: 6/22/2013

 

Trip Report:

Note, I'll fix the rotation on some of the pictures when I get to my home computer...

 

LeDonk and I got the chance to climb the complete North Ridge of Mt. Stuart this weekend. Both of us had climbed the upper ridge before but wanted to take a hack at the complete line. The plan was to ovoid the typical N. Ridge suffer-fest that comes by circumnavigating the mountain by approaching from the North, bivying at the base of the Sherpa Glacier, climbing the route in a single day, and descending via the Sherpa Glacier Couloir.

 

Friday: We left Seattle around 7AM and headed east. After about 4 hours of leisurely hiking, we were at the base of the Sherpa Glacier. We spent the afternoon napping and watching ice and rock fall of the mountains above. We witnessed one of the largest rock slides I’ve ever seen come down the Sherpa Glacier. A few house-sized boulders made it to the centerline of the valley…pretty cool.

 

Saturday: We woke early and were on route by 6:30AM. The lower pitches of the route were fun and went smoothly. We were at the notch where the first bivy sites are around 11AM. From there we continued up easier terrain toward the base of the gendarme. The low angle slab was still holding a fair bit snow and LeDonk was forced to pull out his slab climbing skills. We skirted around the snow to the left on some dirtier slab at 5.7. By this time some clouds were beginning to build higher on the mountain but we were pretty close to the summit so we pressed on.

 

I brought us to the base of the gendarme and LeDonk took the classic layback pitch, which was dripping wet and really cold. I led the second pitch of the gendarme, which was also quite wet, but I was able to get good fist jams in the crack through the grunty part. From there, a few short pitches and some simu-climbing in mixed snow/rock terrain brought us to the summit around 8:30PM in a full on white out. We felt like the amount of snow on the upper ridge really slowed us down.

 

From the summit we attempted to find the Sherpa decent couloir. Neither of us had descended this way before and after literally walking in circles a few times, and darkness setting in, we new bailed on the Sherpa. Not knowing what the weather was going to do, we decided to descend the Cascadian, bivy in the valley for the night, and hike out via Sherpa Pass/ Mountaineer’s Creek the next day.

Sunday: We woke shivering on the forest floor in our emergency bivy, ate our last bars and hiked back to the north side of the mountain, and hiked out in the rain. Arriving back in Leavenworth, we promptly grabbed some burgers at Heidelberger and drove back to Seattle.

 

All in all, a full value trip that didn’t seem to end. Despite spending an extra night out, it was a great trip. The route should be in much better shape in a few weeks.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Standard Alpine Rack. Ice ax, approach shoes, aluminum spikes.

 

Approach Notes:

Icicle Creek to Mountaineers Creek.

[matsfredrickson]

Nice! This route is definitely on the list

[jordansahls]

Nice work Donkey and Hoho!

 

[JensHolsten]

Yeah guys! Even with all the good routes in the Stuart Range these days, the North Ridge still holds it's place as the #1 stunner of the area...what an amazing route. Nice work!

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Nice work, despite the unplanned bivy. I was coming off the west ridge in a day once and ran into a couple who had done almost the same exact thing except a bit later in the year they found the sherpa descent too melted out and had to come down the cascadian. It's all good when you get back to the burger!

[matt_warfield]

After a similar epic on N. Ridge, my next day at work was pretty unproductive. Many a work day or school day has been affected by an alpine adventure that went long: distance and/or time wise.

Edited June 28, 2013 by matt_warfield