Mt. Stuart (9,415 ft), Stuart Range, Cascades, WA (May 3-4, 2011)

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leaf

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Well, it was time for a return to Seattle to make sure Doug was still in good climbing shape. Lucky for me, he had a plan already in place before I even got there. I had been wanting to get on the North Face of Mt. Hood for some time, but this year it was not in the cards for May with the large snowfall the mountains received. Even luckier for me, the Cascades are a spectacular Plan B.

A mudslide had occurred about a month back and closed off a portion of the road that led to the trailhead access road, so we added mountain bikes to our gear list before departing Seattle at 6 a.m. We drove as far as we could, parked and walked up the now, dry mudslide to the other end. Then it was time for some pedalling. The slide had added about 4 miles to our approach. 1 mile on paved road and the rest on the dirt forest road. Biking with a pack filled up climbing gear was a sure interesting and exhausting way to start the trip!

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Once at the trailhead, we had a 6 or 7 mile hike into the Stuart Range and where we'd be camping for the night. The summit was in the clouds that evening, but the weather was decent and tomorrow's forecast was promising bluebird.

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At the base of the mountain, scoping out a tentsite.​

We camped down a small enbankment in some great smelling pine trees and away from the wind. We were at about 5,400' so we knew there was a big day ahead of us and turned in early. We woke up a bit later then we wanted to (by about 3 hours) so we decided on the Ice Cliff Glacier route. It was less technical and maybe a bit shorter in length. The sun was rising as we ate a quick meal, packed up and headed out. The forecast was spot on and we were greeted with warm temps and sunshine.

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Once we were up and over the old glacial moraine and terminus from years ago, we reached the start of the glacier, as it is now, and I was impressed at the ice cliffs signalling its start.

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We climbed to the left of the cliffs up some steep snow and wound our way around some crevasses and other beautiful glacial features.

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Once over the micro-bergshrund, we were dumped in front of a steep snow couloir with very large cornices guarding its top. The temperatures were getting too warm and we were aware of the possibility of those cornices to come down. There was constant reminder of this from the never-ending flurry of ice and snow pellets raining down the couloir. We travelled solo and light to ascend quickly.

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Approaching the steep couloir and looking back at our tracks.​

We found a good spot to top out and it was an incredible moment as I climbed up on the summit ridge. There wasn't much that needed to be said there and not much I can write here, but it was so much fun and I am still smiling from it.

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We had some great views, as Mt. Stuart is the highest mountain in the range, as well as one of the highest in the Cascades. Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams and Glacier Peak could be seen as well as hundreds of jagged peaks.

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Mt. Rainier (right) and Mt. Adams (left).​

When we started up towards the summit, we began to get concerned about the potential for avalanche activity. Add to the warmth making the snow sticky and slippery at the same time, we decided it was best to head down. Going one at a time, we traversed across and down the summit ridge to our descent route on the Sherpa Glacier.

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The Sherpa Glacier was steep once we reached it and we had to down climb it for what seemed like hours.. but finally the glacier relented a bit and we were able to walk down to camp. We climbed a total of 3,300-3,500 feet to the summit ridge and back down the same in about 7 hours. So we reached the tent at 1 p.m., hung around and relaxed and then headed out. Once at the mountain bikes, it was an awesome 4 miles of cruising downhill and we reached the car by 7 p.m. and then it was over to Leavenworth for some german food and, of course, beers.

There's some more photos, both mine and Dougs, HERE

The next day we did some rock climbing out in the desert in Vantage. It was gorgeous and awesome to spend the day in an entirely different environment. Photos are HERE
 
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Mt. Stuart is such a great peak. The Ice Cliff is a classic route. Nice work!
 
Awesome job and photos!......my fav is cbcbd on the mountainbike! Gotta love that zero-emission climber look :D

What's next? Nanga Parbat?
 
Thanks! Here's two good aerial shots of Mt. Stuart from John Scurlock, Photographer & Pilot.

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The Ice Cliff Glacier is on the left.

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The SE Face and the summit ridge.​

His website: http://www.pbase.com/nolock/root
 
Great having the east coast leaf over here! It was great to take advantage of that sunny day and then do the usual Seattle thing and escape East to the desert for dryness.
The big mountains haven't been getting climbed out here recently, haven't had too many great weather windows and this was one of the first warm sunny days in a while - hence the concern for spring time wet slides. Right after we decided to turn around a natural point release wet slide started on the SE slope of the false summit, which we would've had to traverse on the way up and down to get to the summit and back. Sunny and 10am... lots of warmth left in the day, so we skiddadeled out of there. Stuart is actually #7 highest in the WA Cascades and supposedly the biggest hunk of exposed granite in the lower 48. You know, just one of those little easy peaks that gets overshadowed by the volcanoes and their excellent chossy volcanic rock ;)
Good times :)

Here are the pics I think Leaf is trying to show, I don't think pbase likes hotlinking. John Scurlock lives in Concrete, WA (just south of Mt Baker) and is well known to local climbers as an inspiration for finding new unclimbed lines in the WA mountains. "The Bradford Washburn of the North Cascades", as someone put it so well.
http://www.pbase.com/nolock

From the N side showing Rainier in the Background. The prominent Ridge is Stuart's N Ridge, a Roper & Steck 50 classic. To climber's R is the Stuart Glacier, to the L of the ridge, the Ice Cliff Glacier with approx route market.
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From the SE showing the summit, the E ridge towards the false summit, where it drops down toward the col where the Ice Cliff glacier couloir exits. Red line to the top of the Sherpa glacier couloir exit.
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The next day we did some rock climbing out in the desert in Vantage. It was gorgeous and awesome to spend the day in an entirely different environment. Photos are HERE

A historical note here on the rock climbing crag called "Vantage" or the "Frenchmen's Coulee" where we climbed. This is where the famous Swede, Göran Kropp, lost his life in 2002 while climbing a route called "Air Guitar". The area of Vantage where we climbed, called the Sunshine wall, is where that climb is located. There is a plaque at the topout of Air Guitar in his honor. It is an excellent crack going from fingers to hands to fists. Kropp on top!
At Vantage we climbed "Party in you Pants", "Split Beaver", and finished off with "Seven Virgins and a Mule" with packs on :)

My pics are here and here
 
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