Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 5828 | TRs | Pics Location: Conspiring in the Man Cave.
Mon Sep 29, 2008 1:47 pm Mt. Stuart via Cascadian Couloir 9/27 -28
Conditions Location : NE of Cle Elum, Wa.
Access: Teanaway River Rd. > North Fork Teanaway Rd. to Esmeralda TH
Guidebooks : Climbing Washingtons Mountains by Smoot
Maps: USGS Quad and GTM – Mt. Stuart, Custom TOPO
Stats : 12.3 mi, 8500’ r/t from TH
I have always admired this mountain from trails, ridges, and peaks around it, both near and far, and have wanted to climb it for quite some time. Kyled and GeoTom had both took an interest in the same, and after scheduling and weather aligned, we finally made it happen.
So with some nice fall weather and a high pressure ridge in place, we met at the Esmerelda TH and began backpacking to the Ingalls Way Trail and after quite a few switchbacks and emerging views of Esmerelda, Hawkins, Fortune Peaks and others came to Longs Pass with sweeping views from Stuart Pass, Ingalls Pass, Ingalls Creek valley, Mt. Stuart, and the Enchantments.
We descended the climbers path /trail, which is in good condition down to, and across a low Ingalls Creek which was easily rock hopped to the Ingalls Creek trail. As we walked I told them to keep an eye out for a possible climbers path heading left of trail (North), and at 4800’ at the edge of a grassy slope near the treeline we spotted a prominent path, I checked my GPS and sure enough the Cascadian Couloir was due North, and to top it off there was an empty horse campsite, with a nice stream running through it, so we setup camp there. We later walked the path up 600’ or so to the beginning of the small boulder field and could visualize the route, Sweet !
We were hanging around the campsite and I saw someone coming down the path and mentioned it, and when we went to check it out, we ran into the Schmidts and Yukon222, who were heading East after doing Fortune and S. Ingalls, they planned on doing Mt. Stuart from the couloir North of the Ingalls – Beverly Turnpike jct. and ended up camping next to us for the night. It was nice meeting them, I rarely see people on the trails I frequent, let alone nwhikers members, so they settled in, and we all talked awhile, before I got cold, and bid everyone good night.
Kyled, GeoTom, and I were on the trail before dawn initially heading up by headlamp, wanting to give ourselves time, and some sun-free elevation gain, we made good time going up, the gulley wasn’t as bad as advertised, they pulled away fairly quickly, I didn’t feel like I had any energy, so I downed a couple GU’s and some Shot Blocks.
They were out of sight with time, and we hit the boulder field before the sun started shining on us, which was pretty good, I went to the left of the gulley, where you can avoid a lot of the boulders, but not all, they went to the right into another gulley avoiding all the boulders, and we met at the bottom of the snowfield gulley below the false summit.
They had already taken a break, and started heading up the gulley on the right side of the snowfield, I had to rest, fill my bladder with some snow, and more GU . The snow was hard like ice, but fragile, and I broke through to the loose rock below, so I went up the left side where there was more rock, though the rock below the false summit area is all loose and I would argue the crux of the trip is the loose rock around and leading up the False Summit gulley.
As I peeked across the ridge from the False summit, I saw Kyled on the summit, and GeoTom near it on the ridge. The ridge was a welcome break from the climb, with nice blocky rock easily navigatable (class 2-3), eventually I made it over to the final section, and the much talked about slab to the summit, which wasn’t bad at all, there are huge cracks for feet and hands that made the transition easy.
I just wanted to rest, that is a lot of elevation in a short stretch.It was warm, with spectacular views as the photos will show, very gratifying. We stayed quite awhile eating, resting, and taking pics.
When we did leave we took the low route, we came in the high route. Near the South ridge of the False summit we ran into Yukon and the Schmidts, and chatted briefly, before making our way over the ridge and down below the East side of the ridge.
We descended initially down the couloir coming up from the NE and avoided the boulder field, then crossed over a low ridge back into the Cascadian Couloir, which is a little more tricky going down, with the loose rock and sand, eventually you come to another section where a second couloir goes to the right (SSW), we stayed to the left and remained in the CC. The CC gets narrower, then ends with a small boulder field, and finally the trail down through low brush.
I was whipped, but felt better after some food and cold powerade, we packed up, then made the slog back up to Longs Pass, then down to the parking lot on auto-pilot.
What a great trip, a piece of work for sure, but what a payoff, it doesn’t get any better than that as far as scrambles go. I thank Kyled and GeoTom for sharing the experience with me, great companions, and scramblers. Thanks guys. Also Schmidts and Yukon nice to have met you. All you guys are freaks, in a good way !
-------------- I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent_Gandhi
Joined: 13 Jan 2008 Posts: 388 | TRs | Pics Location: Shoreline, WA
Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:27 pm
Cool trip, I'd like to do this one of these days! I was across the way around Lake Ingalls. Looks like there were a lot of NWHikers in that region over the weekend.
Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 5828 | TRs | Pics Location: Conspiring in the Man Cave.
Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:58 pm
Tom_Sjolseth wrote:
Nice trip report! Looks like you guys had perfect weather.
Thanks Tom for the beta, now there is a Topographic map of the route, there is alot of different and conflicting information out there. The weather was spectacular, it was like summer.
-------------- I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent_Gandhi
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
