WEST RIDGE OF STEWIE

[ALLCAPS]

LETS HEAR YOUR EPICS. IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE, YOU ARE MOST AWESOME CLIMBER EVAR.

 

ALSO, ANYONE HAVE SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS TO THE TUNNEL THAT YOU CLIMB????????? DISH.

[irregularpanda]

All my epics were on the N ridge.

Attempt #1, hiking from teanaway @ 11pm, and I went to work that morning @ 4:30 am! We reached the split in the trail, and I said to Kyle "lets go to the right" he said, " no it's this way"

 

When the sun finally rose, we were on the backside of mt ingalls (WTF?) and I was falling asleep while walking. Literally. We took a nap, and then climbed the S face of ingalls instead.

 

2nd attempt.....failure

 

3rd attempt, I forgot my sleeping bag.....

 

4th attempt (4 people, my buddy forgot his harness, WTF), so 2 of us went on to traverse the glacier just before the sun set. We took too much time on the ridge as we weren't comfortable with simul-climbing yet. Got scared at the bottom of the gendarme. Rappelled to the gully. Oh did I mention we were climbing with brand new twin ropes; being new, they were kinked to all hell. (Naughty ropes). So just unkinking the ropes took 45 minutes to set up the rappel. WTF!!!!!

 

Innyhoo, that gully sucks balls. Staying on the ridge would have been smarter, and there is a bivy spot on the top of the gendarme.

 

5th attempt: same partner as #4, we approached from the N and did the complee ridge. We climbed faster, more confidently, and did the gendarme. AWESOME! The only hitches in the girdle were these: my bladder scraped against the wall on the 3rd pitch, and I dumped all my water (like a full gallon) at the bottom of the climb. I was very dehydrated. The other screw up was that I stumbled on the hellish descent, and broke a finger. No biggie, it just sucked. After that, we hitched 4 miraculous rides all the way back to the mt. stuart trailhead. So freaking amazing. For future reference, don't tell distastefull jokes to people giving you a ride. (what's the difference between a hooker and an onion?)

 

6th attempt. Climbed it with my girlfriend. Standard route, crossed the glacier, climbed the gendarme (no way am I ever going in that stupid gully ever again!) and then froze my balls off while we slept on the summit.

[spotly]

Well, we lucked right onto the tunnel without a hitch but I'm hard-pressed to tell you exactly where it's at...anyway, after climbing to the notch behind LJT, scramble into the next gully then look up - this is a pic of what you'll see, scramble up then go behind a large dark flake. Maybe someone with a better memory tell you where that flake's at in this pic but I think you should be able to find it if you're in this general area.

 

Edited June 26, 2008 by spotly

[dmuja]

Tuesday, we did some of this..

 

 

and some of this..

 

 

and unfortunately, some of this too..

 

 

over 24 hours on the WR, down climbing in the dark, spanked by a big complex and underrated hill. Go prepared or be lucky.

[olyclimber]

thats my kind of TR. thanks.

[sobo]

2 epics on WR, 3 epics on the complete NR. The standard epic fare; mostly weather issues on the NR attempts and routefinding fiascos on the WR climbs and/or attempts. Not worth discussing really.

 

Oh, and WhereTF is LJT? Seems I can never land that one on the first go round. Always goes something like this:

 

"There it is. It's up there."

"No, that ain't it. Doesn't look right."

"How would you know what it looks like? You've never hit it."

"Yeah, but it still don't look right."

 

I'm such an alpine l00zer on that bit o' granite. Stuie hates me.