Does anyone know the route/trail from Stuart Lake to the West Ridge?
ExcitableBoy - Sep 25, 2011 12:10 am - Hasn't voted
Re: I'm lost, well not yet, but I will be
Yes but much of it is off trail, requires river crossings on logs that you pretty much have to know where they are, avoid getting sucked into the dreaded bouder field, exit the valley at the correct (hard to find) location, bush whack a bit, walk up the moraine under the Stuart Glacier, up to goat pass, cross a talus field to Stuart Pass, walk under the South Face and find the correct gulley (out of a couple possible ones) and then do the 'challengeing' portion of the route finding. Then you have to descend the icy, broken up Sherpa glacier back to the Stuart Creek valley.
Much easier is to approach via Ingalls lake and descend via Cascadian Couloir. Happy to give any other advice. PM me here or email @ softwareninja@live.com.
West Ridge Epic: Enduring the coldest night of my life
This climb was by far the hardest I have done so far, and while I knew that would be the case, I still underestimated it on several levels. In the numerous trip reports I read and studied in preparation, "Route finding is the crux" was often mentioned. We found that the be very true, and getting off route 4-5 times (sometimes climbing much harder then necessary ways) added significant amounts of extra time to the climb. This is not a climb you can really bail off of on once you get high on the mountain. We also found that there was a little bit of fresh snow up there which complicated the technical pitches further. Overall we ended up about 300 ft below the summit when the sun set, we continued climbing into the dark, but continually got off route, climbing a very difficult pitch covered in ice ( the hardest rock climbing I have ever successfully done), on this pitch we lost a head lamp down the cliff, and our other head lamp died. We ended up having to emergency bivy on a cliff ledge about 200 ft from the summit to wait till light. The wind chill was down to about 10-15 degrees for the night and we had limited bivy gear. We hunkered down and endured the coldest night of our lives, not sleeping at all. At first light we found the route and continued up the final few pitches (including the 5.6 crux) with relative ease compared to what we had climbed up in the dark.
Overall there was some good lessons learned, and insane amount of beauty to behold. I am very thankful for my trusty belay! This mountain put all of our skills and endurance to the test! I could not ask for a better climbing partner. We covered about 17 miles and over 8000 ft of vert.
I have created a video to document the route and our journey, I hope you will find it helpful and informative!
rpc - Jun 1, 2009 12:40 pm - Voted 10/10
nice trgood balance of words & pictures :) nice climb too.
ExcitableBoy - Jun 1, 2009 3:32 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: nice trThanks!
mvs - Jun 3, 2009 1:44 am - Voted 10/10
Great dayYou pack a lot into a day! But ugh...the wet, exploding snow of spring and the associated post-holing ;-).
WittWontQuit - Sep 23, 2011 10:04 pm - Hasn't voted
I'm lost, well not yet, but I will beDoes anyone know the route/trail from Stuart Lake to the West Ridge?
ExcitableBoy - Sep 25, 2011 12:10 am - Hasn't voted
Re: I'm lost, well not yet, but I will beYes but much of it is off trail, requires river crossings on logs that you pretty much have to know where they are, avoid getting sucked into the dreaded bouder field, exit the valley at the correct (hard to find) location, bush whack a bit, walk up the moraine under the Stuart Glacier, up to goat pass, cross a talus field to Stuart Pass, walk under the South Face and find the correct gulley (out of a couple possible ones) and then do the 'challengeing' portion of the route finding. Then you have to descend the icy, broken up Sherpa glacier back to the Stuart Creek valley.
Much easier is to approach via Ingalls lake and descend via Cascadian Couloir. Happy to give any other advice. PM me here or email @ softwareninja@live.com.
Mountain Montage - Dec 17, 2023 1:38 pm - Hasn't voted
West Ridge Epic: Enduring the coldest night of my lifeThis climb was by far the hardest I have done so far, and while I knew that would be the case, I still underestimated it on several levels. In the numerous trip reports I read and studied in preparation, "Route finding is the crux" was often mentioned. We found that the be very true, and getting off route 4-5 times (sometimes climbing much harder then necessary ways) added significant amounts of extra time to the climb. This is not a climb you can really bail off of on once you get high on the mountain. We also found that there was a little bit of fresh snow up there which complicated the technical pitches further. Overall we ended up about 300 ft below the summit when the sun set, we continued climbing into the dark, but continually got off route, climbing a very difficult pitch covered in ice ( the hardest rock climbing I have ever successfully done), on this pitch we lost a head lamp down the cliff, and our other head lamp died. We ended up having to emergency bivy on a cliff ledge about 200 ft from the summit to wait till light. The wind chill was down to about 10-15 degrees for the night and we had limited bivy gear. We hunkered down and endured the coldest night of our lives, not sleeping at all. At first light we found the route and continued up the final few pitches (including the 5.6 crux) with relative ease compared to what we had climbed up in the dark.
Overall there was some good lessons learned, and insane amount of beauty to behold. I am very thankful for my trusty belay! This mountain put all of our skills and endurance to the test! I could not ask for a better climbing partner. We covered about 17 miles and over 8000 ft of vert.
I have created a video to document the route and our journey, I hope you will find it helpful and informative!
https://youtu.be/CgtnjlW1sMI