Background
Comfort is relative.
Last year, I did the West Ridge of Mount Stuart for the first time. The west ‘ridge’ is less of a ridge climb and more a series of ledges, gullies, and some low-to-mid fifth class climbing. Letty and I opted to bring a rope and rack when we did it last year and it felt quite secure. I am no climber, so for the first time around it felt quite appropriate to bring all the means of security.
This weekend Justin, Porter and I wanted to scheme some mountain time. As weather changed, we honed in on having a fast-er go at the West Ridge of Stuart as a trio. Our plan was to solo most, if not all, of the route. Having read back at my trip report from last year, I remembered that the harder climbing on the route wasn’t terribly exposed, and that the exposed climbing on the route was pretty easy.
Again, comfort is relative. With some more repetition on rock this year, the concept of doing the west ridge sans rock gear felt more comfortable this time around. I don’t like the euphemism of ‘scrambling’ for fifth class climbing, this would be soloing at times for sure. If it’s a duck, call it a duck.
Justin and Porter were psyched to try hard and see what round trip time we could push. I wasn’t as psyched on that, preferring to have an efficient and smooth day in the mountains but not needing to turn it into a competition. We talked it through and agreed that the focus of the day would still be to do it together as a trio, but that we’d be quick with stops and push on the climbs. I could get on board with that.
We didn’t bring any traction for snow on the route or on the Cascadian. For one, we hoped that we could bypass snow on the route, and two, we figured that any traction that wasn’t pure crampons (which we weren’t considering bringing) wouldn’t really work anyways. If we got to firm snow on route that we couldn’t pass, we’d just punt and turn around; we had read a trip report from Steven Gnam, who SMASHED his own Mount Stuart FKT via the Cascadian days prior, that he was able to avoid most of the steep snow on the Cascadian by staying on rock.
Trip Report
We started out from the Esmeralda Trailhead around 730A, running most of the way up to Ingalls. Around halfway up the climb, Justin and Porter encouraged me to run ahead and put some distance on the run up, since I am a worse downhill runner than them. We’d meet back up before the start of the route, minimizing any time gaps that might develop between the three of us. I went ahead, making smooth work of the wrap around Ingalls Lake and filled up a third 600mL flask along with my two chest 500mL flasks at the outlet of the lake. I briefly waited for them at Stuart Pass, we were psyched to meet back up and start the route!
It was windy and cold in the morning in the first gulley, which doesn’t typically get sun until 10/1030A. We passed two parties at the base of the first gulley, one that was descending from a harrowing experience on the route the night prior. From what we had heard, they had slid on a snow patch and were extricating themselves; we ended up hearing a helicopter later on, no bueno. Let’s not let that be us, we said to each other, reminding ourselves that we had no traction and were under-gunned for snow.
There was an earlier-than-normal snow patch on the route, where we indeed saw slide marks from the party that was evacuating. We were able to bypass the snow entirely by climbing up and around it, using the moat between the rock and snow as a chimney feature. We had a bit of a slowdown before LJT, where we chose the climber’s left low-fifth seection as opposed to the climber’s right, chossy 3rd/4th class section. One more snow patch where we had to chimney and then we were through the snow. The butt scootch ledge felt much more comfortable this time; I had remembered not liking it last time with Letty. Oh, and the underfoot tunnel is always so fun!
At the West Ridge notch we popped over onto the north face for the exposed climbing on route. Thankfully, the climbing that’s exposed over the north face is quite easy and juggy. We quickly popped over the ridge, continually asking ourselves ‘is this the finger crack? Is this the finger crack? We felt we were on route but I’m convinced that the upper pitches of the west ridge are just confusing, period.
We did indeed find the twin cracks move, with the fixed pin to confirm. We had brought a 4mm cord and belay device to add ‘mental protection’ more than anything for the brief, 5.7 move. Justin solo’d up, offered the rope down. I tied a large overhand knot and passed it around my waist; again, this was soloing. Wrapping a 4mm hyperstatic cord around my waist, with a mediocre-at-best top rope belay is not roped climbing, it’s soloing with mental protection.
We topped out in just over 4 hours; I was surprised by that, not thinking everything would go smoothly but thus far it had. Knowing that I can’t hang with Justin and Porter on steep, technical downhills, I told them that I’d do my best to keep up but that if I got gapped, it was alright. . . I’d just mosie my way back and meet up with them later or at the car. I knew the route, down the Cascadian choss pile.
Porter and I were able to avoid most of the snow down from the false summit but it took quite a bit of extra time and caution. Justin opted to downclimb the snow patch with a rock ice axe; from there, it was down the choss fest to the creek. . . not much to say. I did my best to move smoothly but not with reckless abandon. I value my ankles too much to do that. Point me uphill and I’ll give it hell. But I’m no downhill runner.
It started to get darn hot down near the creek and I began to douse myself with water as I neared the climb up towards Long Pass. I figured if I pushed hard I could get some time back on Justin and Porter, maybe catching up with them?? I wasn’t sure but felt energetic and good to push. I got sight of them as I cleared through the trees below Longs; they still had a gap on me at the top of Longs Pass but I figured I could catch up with some speedier downhill miles. I could tell that my left shoe was loose on the descent, and I knew that I should stop to tie it, but opted to keep it rolling. I caught up to Justin and Porter maybe 1/3 of the way down and around 1 mile from the car rolled my left ankle mildly due to the loose shoe. Dammit Sam. It wasn’t too bad and I kept it going, just mentally kicking myself for not stopping for a few seconds to tighten the lace.
We made it back to the car in 6h20m, which again surprised me but considering we had just efficiently moved all day added up. It’s a pretty sweet route, aside from the Cascadian choss fest. To be clear, I know this is not an FKT, as there’s loads of silent crushers in Leavenworth and on the eastside that have done this route faster. I’d be very psyched to see how fast Steven Gnam or Gian Dalle could rip this route ;) poke, poke.
Some notes from this time around:
- The hard climbing on this route doesn’t feel terribly exposed and feels quite secure, hold-wise. The exposed climbing I felt was pretty easy, and I’m not a good climber.
- La Sportiva Mutants were the perfect shoe for this. I didn’t bring rock shoes this time around.
- The pitch on the north face really isn’t that long if you’re not roped for it, don’t be surprised if you feel you get back on the ridge quickly.
- For a real speed burn, I think you really should wait until the route is nearly snow free (one snow patch may always remain) and you can boot ski down the Cascadian or avoid snow altogether.