Mt. Stuart via the Direct North Ridge

This past summer, me and my climbing partner Forest had the itch to climb something big. We had both been trad climbing a lot lately and wanted to push ourselves in the alpine, so we settled on Mt. Stuart as a good objective. The complete north ridge is the biggest, baddest line up the north face of the mountain. It's about 3000 feet of climbing with a 5.9+ crux low and another 5.9 on the gendarme close to the summit. It also holds a spot on the 50 Classic Climbs of North America, so with all that it felt like the obvious choice. We also wanted to do the direct start, which added about 800' of climbing to the abbreviated route. I thought it'd be cooler to climb the full ridge anyway. 

 

The plan was to climb the route in 2 days, sleeping on the route and carrying everything up and over. We wanted to go light since we would be climbing with our packs on, so we didn't bring a stove or a tent. Most of our meals were cheese, tortillas, and cliff bars. 

 

We left Seattle at 11pm on July 15, a bit later than we had hoped. We pulled onto the side of the road by the Esmerelda trailhead around 2:30am and quickly tried to fall asleep (while both sleeping in the back of a Prius, which was surprisingly comfortable). We woke up around 7:30 and had a tired, slow start. We started hiking around 8:15 and made a good pace to Ingall's Pass, arriving at 9:25. 

 

 

We descended down from the pass and crossed the basin, headed towards Ingalls lake. The basin was full of snow, which we weren't completely prepared for. We both were wearing approach shoes with no crampons or microspikes, which would come into play on the descent. When we made it to Ingall's lake I was surprised it was still covered in ice in July. There were also several mountain goats, some with babies, roaming around. We took our first water and food break here. This break was cut unfortunately short by a mountain goat marching straight at us.

 

 

 

We walked from Ingall's lake to the ridge leading towards the West Ridge of Stuart, another Cascade classic. Along the way, we had another break cut short by a mountain goat coming way too close. This time it was a bit harder to get around because it was on a ridge. We were headed up towards a saddle, where we would then cut left across the scree fields and around to the north side of the mountain.

 

 

The last bit up to the base of the West Ridge was a slog, but it was over soon. We took a quick break and then dropped down to the snow below the ridge. We crossed some incredibly loose scree fields and some snow and made our way up to the saddle where we hoped we could see the north ridge.

 

 

We got to the top of the pass and finally got a glimpse of the North Ridge. To be honest it looked pretty intimidating. This was by far the biggest objective I'd ever attempted. We crossed loose scree fields, gently weighting each boulder and rock so it wouldn't begin to slide down the steep, loose sand. We filled all of our water bottles from a trickle of sandy glacier melt, which took a while, but this was the last water we found until the bottom of the Cascadian Couloir. We kept scrambling downhill over scree and snow until we reached the foot of the north ridge. 

 

The full route is visible here, you can even clearly see the gendarme.

 

 

I went ahead and scrambled up to a ledge where the 5th class climbing began. Forest was close behind me and he made his way up to the ledge where I had already pulled out the snacks. And by snacks, I mean a block of cheddar. Good shit. Looking up at the route I could see a corner leading up to a chimney behind a block. Our goal for the first day was to reach a bivy site about 600' up the route. We took a longer break at the base of the route and around 3:00pm I started up the first pitch. 

 

The first three pitches are the crux of the lower ridge. I climbed up cracks and into a corner, past a small tree and found myself in a narrow slot. I realized I had accidentally linked the two pitches and had ended up in a chimney with a fairly large backpack on. I clipped my pack onto a cam and continued (with a lot of effort) up and out of the awkward chimney. Forest lead pitch 3, the crux of the whole route. It looked like a straightforward hand crack from below, but as Forest climbed I could tell it was harder. It ended up being much harder than it looked to jam straight in, so I had to layback a lot of the crack. It was especially tiring with a pack on. Overall the first three pitches took us about 2.5 hours. A lot of this was me stuck in the p2 chimney. After we reached the top of this pitch, we shortened the rope and I started up the first simul pitch.

 

Looking up at p1.

 

At the top of p3, ready to simul.

 

 

The rest of the climbing was mostly class 4 with a few 5th class moves. The rock was solid and if you stayed on route it wasn't too dirty. It was relatively easy to tell if you were off route just based on how much lichen there was. We reached the bivy ledges just before sunset, around 7:30. There was one other party there, a couple from Seattle. We took the bivy sites below theirs. 

 

The views were stunning. Incredible views of Mt. Colchuck and the Ice Cliff Glacier, which would release blocks of ice every now and again. The only downside was the dense swarms of mosquitos. I was surprised to find them so high on a mountain, but they were some of the worst I've experienced. Because we didn't bring tents, there was no way to escape them besides getting in my sleeping bag and trying to sleep face down on my pad. Eventually, when the sun set and the mosquitos slowly dissipated, I was finally able to fall asleep.

 

 

I woke up the next morning at 5:00am and began scarfing down some trail mix for breakfast. We weren't in a huge rush but we moved quickly to get moving as soon as possible. We started climbing right around 5:40am, as the sun was starting to rise. 

 

First light on the Ice Cliff glacier.

 

The first section of simul climbing was pretty mellow. I lead first, heading right around the large tower of rock looming above our bivy site. The climbing was easy, with a few thought-provoking moves, especially where it was wet in a few places. Eventually, we climbed back up onto the crest of the ridge. We reached the notch where the abbreviated route starts and ran into another party getting ready to start climbing. We said hello and climbed past. We climbed up and down the ridge, weaving around ledges, stepping over gaps, and shimmying across narrow knife edges. The rock was all incredible, super solid and grippy, there was almost no choss on the upper route.

 

About to regain the ridge.

 

Just past a short downclimb.

 

 

After what felt like endless simul climbing I turned a corner and could see the imposing gendarme, as well as the slab with crack. Forest belayed me in and I lead the last simul pitch up the fun slab to the base of the gendarme. We reached the gendarme at 10:45am. There was a bit of snow around but the route had been completely snow free so far.

 

 

 

I lead the first pitch of the gendarme, a wavy finger crack which honestly felt pretty easy for 5.9. It was really fun and it ends on top of a small pillar where you can build a belay. I hauled my pack and then Forest made light work of the pitch. Forest lead pitch 2, a wide fist crack, which he climbed with no problem. I followed the pitch with a pack and ended up falling out of the crack once. I thought it was pretty insecure, especially with my thinner hands. We finished the gendarme around 1:15pm. 

 

 

After the gendarme there was only one more crack we pitched out and, otherwise we simuled the rest of the way to the summit. There were a few patches of snow on this upper section, more than enough to thoroughly soak my climbing shoes, but it was fairly easy terrain to the summit.

 

 

We summited at 3:15pm. The views were incredible and we were stoked. Soon after, a couple who were climbing the route car to car in a day joined us on the summit. They took our summit photo and I returned the favor. They left before us to head down the Sherpa Glacier while we ate some food and signed the summit register. 

 

 

The one thing everyone says about the descent from Mt. Stuart via the Cascadian couloir is that you can't see the couloir from the summit, so don't go down the big obvious you can see. That will take you down Ulrich's couloir, which is a much steeper and gnarlier descent. Despite knowing this, I still managed to get confused and we descended Ulrich's for about 45 minutes before realizing it. We debated continuing and figuring it out before making the smart decision and climbing back to the summit to find the correct descent route.

 

The general route from the summit to the Cascadian couloir.

 

After finding our way over to the top of the Cascadian couloir we realized the first 500' were full of snow. We hadn't brought ice axes or crampons, which might have been less of a problem if the snow was soft. Unfortunately, since we had spent 2 hours getting lost, the snow had been in the shade and was hard and icy. We saw that there was a rocky ridge across the snow where we could probably descend. We each found a suitable rock to use as an improvised ice axe and I lead the way across the ice. 

 

We moved methodically, kicking in as much as possible (Forest actually wore his climbing shoes because they could kick in a bit better) and hammering our rocks into the snow for something to hold on to. The consequences of a slip would be a rapid uncontrolled slide down steep ice into the jagged rocks at the bottom. Even with an ice axe, it would be hard to arrest a fall on such hard snow. Eventually, after what felt like ages, we finally reached the safety of the rocks. From here we down climbed to the end of the snow, where we could finally speed up.

 

Looking back at the snow crossing, I swear it's sketchier than it looks.

 

The team we met at the notch, fully decked out in mountaineering boots and crampons. They had a much easier time on the descent.

 

Looking down the Cascadian couloir.