Mount Stuart, WA beta

Anyone have any good beta on Mount Stuart, WA?

Specifically:
-Permit, is it self serve at the trailhead, or is it at the ranger office in town?
-Bear food storage requirements, and or what you can get away with…?
-Any key beta on the complete north ridge?
-Any key beta on the west ridge descent, coming down over this goat pass.
Or that other way that looks too long - cascade cooler descent.

Looking at a late July ascent…

Thanks for any and all thoughts.
Cory

Here's a start stephabegg.com/home/triprep…

Cor wrote:Anyone have any good beta on Mount Stuart, WA? Specifically: -Permit, is it self serve at the trailhead, or is it at the ranger office in town? -Bear food storage requirements, and or what you can get away with…? -Any key beta on the complete north ridge? -Any key beta on the west ridge descent, coming down over this goat pass. Or that other way that looks too long - cascade cooler descent. Looking at a late July ascent… Thanks for any and all thoughts. Cory

• *No permit special permit needed other than FS Parking Pass and the self registration at the trailhead. If you don't have an FS Parking Pass , you can pay per day at the TH.
• *No bear food requirements. Snafflehounds are more the issue, especially of you're sleeping at Goat Pass.
• *Complete N Ridge is a killer day or great two day. Approach from either the North side or the South Side. North side deproach is much more involved than the south side deproach. Both are equally long and gruelling.
• *The West ridge descent is long and complicated I've heard, especially if you haven't climbed it before. I've heard you won't save any time nor energy going down West Ridge.
• *The cascadian descent, though long, goes fairly quickly and easily. You can turn the mind off and descend vs a no nonsense deproach down the north side (Sherpa Glacier or Sherpa/Argonaut Col).
• *If a fast hiker, and approaching from the south side trailhead around Ingalls Lake, an on 4-6 hours to get to the base of the North Ridge. Be sure to refill your water on the Stuart glacier crossing.
• *6-8 hours to climb. 4-6 hours from summit to TH.
• *70m rope is way overkill for this route. I now use a 140' rope, which is perfect for pitching out the harder sections, and the endless simul climbing you'll be doing.
• *Do yourself a favor and lead the 2nd pitch hand crack on the lower ridge.
• *Do not bypass the Gendarme on the upper ridge by rapping down into the wet, dark loose gully. Such a bad decision. The two pitches of the Gendarme are just incredibly fun.

Thanks Jplotz!

Have you approached from both sides?
The thought was from Stuart lake TH.
Now wondering about this south side approach...
4-6 hours to climb sounds short!
I would guess the cascade cooler descent is the way
to go if you approached from that side...

Cheers,
C

Cor wrote:Thanks Jplotz! Have you approached from both sides? The thought was from Stuart lake TH. Now wondering about this south side approach... 4-6 hours to climb sounds short! I would guess the cascade cooler descent is the way to go if you approached from that side... Cheers, C

Hey there,

In my post I said 6-8 hours to climb, not 4-6. The approach will take 4-6 hours. Depending on how hard you hike, that is!

Yes I've approached from both sides. If coming from the north (Stuart Lake) go all the way around it and pick up a rough trail aiming for the gully that's marked in this photo. Easy scrambling up and over to the lower north ridge.

Or you can follow a faint trail up mountaineer's Creek and up into mountaineer's basin directly to the lower north ridge. Both ways take about the same amount of time and effort.

I have done this a few times with different strategies. One option is to do the traditional South Side approach, nice bivy spot at the notch on the ridge and decent cascade cooler back to your car. Another option that works for a day climb is to do a car shuttle, leave a car on the South side, drive around do the Mountaineers Creek approach and descend cascade back to the car left on the south side. This option gives you the least amount of hiking on the approach and straightforward descent, but lots of driving.
I have also done the route solo in a day by coming in from Mountaineers creek, climbing the North Ridge and down climbing the west ridge back to stuart lake trail, worked well but descending the Sherpa/Argonaut col might be a better option.

I did the complete ridge from the South Side approach a few years back, almost in a day car-to-car.

Approach on the way in is generally straightforward, we missed one of the trails to Stuart Pass but I don't think it set us off time much. Trail to Ingalls lake is very straightfoward, and Goat pass is pretty self explanatory when you see it.

We climbed in early September I think, didn't need crampons, but just barely. You will need to simul-climb about 90% of the terrain to have any chance of doing it car-to-car.

We got stuck in the Ingalls Creek valley on the way out, when you descend Cascadian Couloir, you are quite a ways away from where you hiked in by Lake Ingalls, and the quick way is just to shoot over the ridge to the trail.. We ended up doing an unplanned bivy because we knew that it would be way faster to climb the 1400' back to the trail in the morning. A GPS would be nice if you wanted to do that at night because it is heavily treed and you can't see shit.

The Stuart Lake permits seem to be readily available compared to Core Enchantment permits if you wanted to do it in 2 days.

I did the south side approach with a bivy on route just before the notch late last summer. Since we didn't expect water on route we led out at the base of the route with 4 liters of water. That sucked, really detracts from the climbing. The bivy gear was light as well, pad and 11oz bivy sack, no sleeping bag, a puffy, wool socks to sleep in.
I think my plan next time will be to either leave a tent at lake Ingalls and do the climb that day. Or just do a really long push c2c.

Cor wrote:Anyone have any good beta on Mount Stuart, WA? Specifically: -Permit, is it self serve at the trailhead, or is it at the ranger office in town? -Bear food storage requirements, and or what you can get away with…? -Any key beta on the complete north ridge? -Any key beta on the west ridge descent, coming down over this goat pass. Or that other way that looks too long - cascade cooler descent. Looking at a late July ascent… Thanks for any and all thoughts. Cory

Hey Cory - It's bigger country and more ups/downs/approach logistics than anything in RMNP, but you'll have fun and the climbing itself will be cruiser for ya. Here's what I'd do:

Since it will be mid/late summer, just start and end from the south side trailhead, accessed from I-90. That means a long easy approach (clockwise arc around the mountain) and a no-brainer descent via the Cascadian Couloir.

The only permit or fee (even if you bivied somewhere) is a $5/day trailhead parking pass.

Don't take 'pons or axe, there is plentiful water on the approach, but then likely none until you do most of the descent. The climbing is a long ridge scramble with some .8/.9 pitches in a couple spots. Bring a single 30m rope or double up a skinny 8mm, and throw in extra runners but no big cams. Have fun!

There's a ton of beta, maps, topo, etc in the new guidebook.

you can do the entire ridge car to car from the south in about 12 to 13 hours if you are fit...
easy approach - past ingalls lake and over Goat Pass to access the north ridge...
from goat pass, angle down to the bottom of the ridge... no crampons or ice axe should be required, though this will depend on time of year and conditions. later in the year you will not need axe and crampons.
definitley do the gendarme pitches rather than rappel...
bear left as you approach the summit to do as much 4th class climbing as possible after the gendarme pitches...
descend cascadian couloir... do not descend ullrich's couloir by mistake...
at the base of cascadian, head westish along ingalls creek towards ingalls lake and look for a left turning climbers trail to take you back to the car via longs pass.
the descent should be about 4 hours from summit to car.

by the way - there is a really good beta image on mountain project for the "direct North ridge" really good map with lines showing the beta i have described...

3 - 5 hours into the ridge,
5 - 6 hours on route
4 hours return

Hey everyone!

Thanks for some key beta, as I am not from around that area. My knowledge is limited to Forbidden Peak from a previous trip to Washington.

I know we can do it all fine, but beta strategies like what you all have said help make it more fun, and less slogging.

Now I just need to heal my foot that I F'ed up training my cardio here. Or if it doesn't heal, then I will have to hike/climb in my mountaineering boots. (Can't stand on my big toe/edge at the moment..)

Cheers all,
Cory

one more thought....

there are awesome bivy spots on the summit of Stuart.
my wife and i spent our honeymoon up there after climbing the north ridge.
we carried on sleeping bag, stove for a light bivy.

there should be water close by in snow patches, but that will be dependent n time of the year and snow pack levels of course.

we still went back over longs pass to the car. it is the fastest, most direct way to get out.

enjoy the route!!

lastly - Razorback ridge, just to the west of the North Ridge is also an awesome route. a longer section of knife edge that you climb like a hand rail. more or less the same grade as th enorth ridge it is super fun, it ties into the west ridge near the top and can be done using the same beta... however there may be more need for an ice axe to cross the stuart glacier

Ohh, now we're talking!

I like that summit bivy idea.. going light, carrying everything. Nothing to return to except the car.
Now the real question is the possible snow on the summit area for water.

I went back and did the complete C2C last month, just carried a 22L pack with a puffy and windbreaker. Made the climbing much more fun (and faster).

If you decide to bivy at the top there is no source of water at the summit, lots of snow still over at the false summit. You could head over to the false summit and find an OK bivy site, but you might have to melt the snow for water.

Also if you go on a weekend it's hit or miss as to how many parties will be on route. We went on a Wednesday and had the whole route to ourselves.

Hey thanks Nick!

Unfortunately we had to cancel our trip for this yeah due to a foot injury. Argh!
We will try and go next season. Bought our tix on miles, and get to reschedule
with no charge for one year. That's nice.
Now I just have to hope that my foot is good enough for France work/climb trip in September.

Thanks again for all the beta, and comments folks. This is the kind of stuff that helps make
MountainProject such a great resource!

Cheers,
SoftCor