Stuart is the second highest non-volcanic peak. This pic is from Stuart Pass (Camps) and shows the West Ridge. July 4 weekend 4 of us tried to do the W ridge of Stuart. Weather was iffy and we ended up climbing into pea soup. When it started drizzling and the rock was getting slick, we decided to turn back. On the plus side, Sunday was a beautiful day in Highlight basin. Why the weather gods didn't move that up a day for us, I don't know.
Fast forward to the next long weekend - labor day weekend. Lucas and I set off to do the W ridge and see if we couldn't tame the beast. Weather was slightly better than the July 4th weekend but pea soup came and went and we really didn't get any warmth from the sun, leaving the rock frigid, at least to the wusses that were climbing this specific time. We camped at Stuart Pass as before and woke at 4. I was pissed because I wanted to sleep in, and there is no way that a few thousand feet should take us that long especially since we had gotten 1,000 feet within the destination before. But 4 it was and we were on our way. We decided to take our camp up and over to save us a little time on the way, even if it made climbing a tad more difficult. Up the west ridge, we passed all of the bivvy sites we were familiar with. We recognized the place that we turned around before and thought we were in good time as it was about 8 or 9 AM. Route finding became difficult and we kept finding signs of bivvy sites, all the way up and over the summit. It wasn't until afterwards that we read on someone's post that "90% of first attempts of the W ridge end up needing bivvys." That explains the plethora of them scattered throughout the rock face.
Well, here we went up, down, over here and over there, trying to stay on the W ridge and follow the "described" route, but that was futile. After 3 or 4 hours we had made it 500 feet and didn't feel any higher. We just decided don rock shoes and belays and climb with some experimentation with route finding and we went in the 'direction' of the perceived route descriptions. Following signs of human tracks, we thought we were on a route that would 'go.' At this point I can only (possibly) retrace our steps and can't begin to explain the route. Lucas took the final lead and by 5 pm (I think?) he was belaying me up to the summit. What a fine feeling that was, in the waning beautiful afternoon skies.
A quick lunch and we headed dow to the Cascadian Couloir. This was not an easy route down without being familiar with it. Whatever path we took 'went,' even if a little unclear as to whether it was going to or not. Light was waning and we were not yet at trail. 5 minutes after donning the headlamps we found a nice little maintained trail, which made things mindless until back at the trailhead. However, a trip wouldn't be complete without me bonking on the way back up to the pass. But alas, just past 11 pm we were back at trailhead. At 1:45 we took our shot of whiskey at home to celebrate the accomplishment and the long day.
... and as everything says, good route finding on this route leads to better (or at least faster) success. Lucas pictured on the summit and a self portrait of the two of us on the summit. Not really many other pics taken.
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