[huron]

According to Beckey, the early summit attempts on Mt. Stuart go back to third hand information about a guy who found a stick on the summit inscribed with "Angus McPherson - 1873." The ghost of old Angus has haunted me since reading Beckey's description so I looked for an opportunity to exorcise him once and for all. Coach's trip report on Stuart in a day showed that a one day hike was quite achievable. Conditions were right, and Seattlehikertoo would join me for good company, so this was a perfect opportunity. Start time was somewhere around 6am at the Esmeralda trail head where the parking lot was full. We proceeded up and over Ingalls Pass, snapped some photos and headed down to the creek where we found two other hikers with similar plans.

Stuart Range from Ingalls Pass

We took the first gulley we found, since it appeared to go all the way to the snow field. On the way up, the loose gravel/scree/sand was so bad that we decided to try our luck on the next gulley over with a short bushwhack over a ridge. Same thing there. At the top of the couloir, Sherpa, Argonaut and the rest of the Stuart range came into view. I took a moment to ponder the balanced rock's height above Sherpa and snapped a photo for reference. We went up the West side of the rapidly melting snowfield where we found a combination of loose sand and smooth granite walls. Cresting the ridge, a series of cairns marked the way to the summit over car sized boulders. A small chimney lead to the summit block.

Stuart Summit Route

Gaining Stuart Summit

Once on top at about noon, we found a Mazama placed aluminum register case. The case is full of random papers. If anyone goes up, it could use a new one. The box would fit a full letter sized book.

Topped out

Mt. Daniel from Mt. Stuart Summit

Gargoyle

The way down was best described as a controlled slide. Back to the car a bit after 6pm where we joined a cast of strange characters including a family who were attempting to empty their garbage into the composting toilet, a sweaty man with Crocodile Dundee's knife on his belt, and two families yelling at each other in Arabic.

[Magellan]

Stuart is getting hiked a lot! Thanks for the beta, including the trailhead melee'.

[seattlehikertoo]

This was an excellent trip. Here's some route details as well as a few remarks on the route and weird tourist encounters. To clear a few things up from the get-go. First, the idea that the couloir is not that bad is giving out false info. Period. True, the upper portion (above 7600 feet) is a fun scramble, but the lower portion (5400 - 7600 feet), well...Put it this way, if you took a sandy beach, added loose basketball-sized boulders and other scree, then pitched the entire thing on a 45 degree slope, you'd be describing the couloir perfectly. You'll be creating your own dust storm, especially on the way down, and are guaranteed to dislodge a few large rocks as well. We were so tired of yelling "ROCK!" that we wished we had it pre-recorded so that we could just hit a button on our packs whenever we needed. We began hiking from the crowded parking lot (elev 4240). For those that are navigationally challenged, we went right at the first sign,

Go to the right

then right at the second sign,

Go to the right

and were at longs pass (elev 6200) in an hour and 15 minutes including a couple of pit-stops along the way. It's 3.2 miles to the pass. We took a right at the big rock cairn and dropped down into the Ingalls Creek basin.

Looking down into the Ingalls Creek Basin from Longs Pass

The idea of dropping 1350 feet to Ingalls Creek after the nearly 2000 we gained to Longs Pass was a bit disheartening, but we ambled on down into the forest after admiring the morning sun and the enormous mass of granite in front of us. After another 1.3 miles and before we crossed the creek, we came to a nice camp site, then a sign which marks the end of the Longs Pass trail where it intersects the Ingalls Creek trail. There's a rock cairn there.

The way to the climbers paths

We went right again, and another sign on our left marked the Ingalls Creek trail (elev 4900).

Go right to the climbers paths

We continued on, and crossed the creek in less than 2 tenths of a mile.

Another 100 feet or 100 yds to the climbers path on the left

We watched closely on our LEFT for a boot path. One of them is only 100 feet after the creek which we didn't even see on the way up. The next one is another 100+ yards on your LEFT. We took the latter (elev 4835 and approx 4.7 miles from the parking lot) and began a steep ascent that would continue for 4200 vertical feet in under 2 miles. The trail becomes rather brushy in spots until about 5400 feet at the base of the couloir, where we picked up some cairns leading the way up an unforgettable upward trudge on sand, scree, loose rock, and other undesirable material unsuited for reliable traction. This flail-fest continues until the crest of the couloir at 7600 feet, where we passed some small trees. I should note that we stayed mostly on the left flank of the couloir since we found more desirable traction there.

Our route

After cresting the couloir at 7600 feet, we angled up and to the left into a wider, much more enjoyable class 2 and 3 scramble that leads to the false summit. As mentioned in other reports, there are cairns marking the way to false summit. The scramble becomes more class 3 closer to the false summit. When we crested the spine of the false summit (elev 9000), we got "off-cairn" a bit and had to make a couple of high class 3 (maybe low class 4) moves, but it was a rather enjoyable scramble, and avoiding danger was not a problem. We gained and lost another hundred feet or so, and picked up the cairns again on our final push to the true summit. There is a fun class 3 section near the summit, and then it's an easy walk to the top rock where we arrived around noon (elev 9415). The views were grand and signing the summit register added to the pleasure of sitting atop a seemingly insurmountable piece of granite. The way back was a slide-fest, nearly impossible to stay on your feet the entire way down. We also had to re-gain some elevation a couple of times between the false summit and true summit making sure we were going on our intended route. As Magnum mentioned, this trip turned weird in a hurry when we got back to the parking lot. I saw a young women go in and out of the toilet 2 or 3 times with a bag full of who knows what. She was pacing back and forth in front of it, when Magnum sternly reminded her to pack it out. I am not sure if she understood what he meant, but my body could no longer wait, so I seized control of the toilet and locked the door. Moments later, there was a series of knocks at the door over a chorus of foreign languages. At this point, I was prepared to hole up in there, not just to relieve myself, but to protect our lovely toilets from unwanted predators. Time up approx 6:15, 7 miles, 6830 feet gained Summit time approx 40 min Time down approx 5:30, 6.9 miles, 1700 feet gained Time up from Ingalls Creek to summit approx 4:15 after plenty of route finding, route adjusting, and a snack Total trip: 12:25, 13.9 miles, 8530 feet More pics...

Rainier in the morning light from Longs Pass

Magnum getting a final look from Longs Pass

View from Longs Pass

Looking back on the zigzag path up to Longs Pass

Magnum in front of our destination

Views SW from near top of couloir

Magnum admiring the views near the top of the couloir

Views from top of couloir

Magnum approaching the top of the couloir

Rainier emerges above the clouds

Views near the beginning of the ridge traverse

Sherpa Balanced Rock

Sherpa Balanced Rock

Sherpa Balanced Rock

Magnum atop the high class 3 near the summit

Magnum signs the register

Summit views

Summit views

Near summit

Summit views

Summit views

Views from the ridge traverse

Views from 8500 feet up the couloir

SE flank of Stuart and peaks surrounding the Enchantments

Stuart

West ridge of Stuart

Magnum capturing the scene at Longs Pass

[Stefan-K]

oh good, you made it out of the toilet, pics intact, to grace us with this lovely dual kick-ass account. nice!

[Go Jo]

Apparently we need to make the TNAB schedule more challenging for you two yahoos! Think we'll make you hike this week's destination barefoot and blindfolded... Seriously though, it's amazing to see what you have been experiencing and accomplishing on your trips this season. I'm thrilled that your conditioning and drive is allowing for these type of mountain experiences, well done ~Jo

[seattlehikertoo]

Yes, I am out of the toilet and at the computer... Stuart finished off a week that included Mailbox, Del Campo, Lakebagging at Pratt and Tuscohatchie, and Stuart. I think that's 46.7 miles, 20,800 feet of gain, or thereabouts Now, I'm going to bed...

[rbuzby]

Cool trip! Stuart rules. I was up on Earl Sunday scoping Stuart. I must have taken 1100 pictures. I wonder why nobody seems to go the easy way on Stuart anymore? You can day hike through Beverly pass down to Ingalls, then over to the big giant obvious main gully that comes down and to the east from the false summit. Then up that gully and over to the main summit from the false one. It's just a long slog in snow(early season) or scree (now). Maybe its too tedious, or is longer by a mile or 2. But its "class nothing" and theres no route finding challenge. I did it in a 16 hour day trip in May. Falling asleep on the summit made it take longer than it had to. Cascadian Colour (sp?) or one of those other gullies must be more fun, more scrambling or shorter distance or whatever. I'm guessing thats why people go that way mostly. But the easy way is awful easy. The guy who used to cut my hair in Ellensburg went up that way with his young grandaughter. Anyone who just wants to get up there without scrambling much, or at all, may want to consider that way instead of CC, or other gullies west of the easy one.

[coach]

Looks like I started a recent trend with Stuart dayhikes. Were you successful in exorcising Angus?

[ragman and rodman]

[seattlehikertoo]

R and R, Yes, the variation would have been better in retrospect for both up and down. Your report is awesome by the way.

[tigermn]