Visiting Leavenworth Oct-Nov. Bring the sharp things?

Hello everyone,

I will be located in Leavenworth from Mid-Oct to Mid-Nov. I am curious what the locals think conditions might be like in Icicle Creek and the Stuart Range. Should I bring the sharps (ice tools, crampons, screws, mountain boots, etc.) or would my alpine rock gear suffice?

Also looking for weekend partners.

Cheers,
BD

You wont be climbing any alpine rock, but you probably wont yet be finding ice, especially if the warm and dry weather continues. Go bouldering or cragging.

To go with what Blake said about alpine rock, it seems like each time I or a friend have been in the enchantments/stuart zone during that time it's either snowed, sleeted, rain, been windy as hell, or all of the above. The first few snowfalls in talus fields are treacherous ankle sprains waiting to happen.

So I guess it wouldn't be worth the hassle of bringing that stuff... Oh well. Thanks for the info. I will try to get out where I can.

Cheers,
BD

Might be worth it to bring rock gear and crag.

A lot can happen in a month...

You won't "need" it, and it's always possible that conditions aren't great in Nov (like last year and the year before). But, if it's not a huge hassle to bring it, think about if you'll regret being there without your tools if the Stuart Range looks like this:

cascadeclimbers.com/forum/u…

(you can flip through Nov TRs on cc yourself if you want to get an idea of probability of finding good conditions vs probability of going all the way up there and then leaving after slipping around on some dust on rocks and not finding any ice...ahem)

You may be able to climb some alpine rock on south facing routes in the next week or so if you don't mind being a little cold. (some actual south facing routes somehow seem to turn into north faces in fall because they get shaded by neighboring mountains all morning and there's some annoying icy wind blasting you all day, but this occasionally seems to happen in the middle of summer anyway). Just don't make the mistake of thinking that if the forecast is for 10% chance of rain and 70 degrees in Leavenworth that it's not going to be some Patagonia-type experience 7000 ft higher. If you are really wanting to get away from the crags this can be a good time to do some cold and sunny scenic scrambling at a grade that you won't mind a bit of snow/verglas on (West Ridge of Stuart maybe).

Some of the locals have BTDT so don't care anymore, but if you haven't been to the Enchantments when the larches are golden, the scenery with a bit of fresh snow on it is ridiculously beautiful, maybe even enough to make up for your alpine rock route getting snow plastered and your crappy talus approach getting treacherized (looks like peak larch is about now, so get there soon). Or if you are not into possible involuntary backpacking you can just look at like everybody's instagram from last weekend and then go bouldering.

There are also multipitch routes that are not considered alpine (eg. Snow Creek Wall) that will be good for a while if it doesn't rainorsnow too much.