Background
I am by no means an alpine climber. There was a time when I really dreamed and aspired to climb many of the classic alpine routes around Washington; I looked at rock climbing with an awe and inspiration that motivated me to improve. For a number of reasons, I lost that awe. Maybe I’ll get it back some day, I’m not sure. But regardless, I really do not possess the capabilities or skills to solidly alpine climb on my own. All of the climbs I have done have been with more experienced and capably skilled partners than I.
Letty and I have wanted a mountain day together for a bit but haven’t quite nailed getting ourselves into position for one the last few times we’ve tried. We have made a list of ideas of mountain romps that we’d like to do together and Stuart’s West Ridge has been near the top for over a year.
Years ago, I remember my friend Kyle doing the West Ridge of Stuart and it blew my mind. The ridge looks so aesthetic from afar; I’ve stared at it the few times I’ve skied Stuart’s south side. I read his and Steve’s trip report with that awe I mentioned, the complex route finding around Long John Tower intimidating me. Is this something that I can do?? It seemed exposed and scrambly enough that it deterred me for a while.
After getting my shoulder repaired in 2022 I started feeling more confident on rock climbing and scrambling again. Over time I’ve become less afraid of my shoulder popping out of its socket, which is nice; I could never really justify to myself how climbing and especially scrambling/soloing would be okay if I wasn’t confident on my shoulder staying put.
Since 2021, the west ridge has seen much more traffic and there’s plenty, plenty of beta on it now. Letty and I each did our homework and I developed a Caltopo map with some friend’s GPX tracks, some markers with photos of the key ledges / pieces of beta, etc. We packed a 35m rope for the pitches above the West Notch, as I certainly wasn’t going to be comfortable soloing 5.6./5.7. We opted to leave the pons and axes at home after getting beta recently from our friends Michael and Tucker that had been up on the route. With plenty of beta, running vests/small day packs that were a little heavy for shuffling, we left my house just after 4:30 AM ready for a ramble in the hills. We thought the day would take us anywhere from 11-13 hours, hoping for closer to 11.
Trip Report
TL;DR for those that don’t want to read through all the trip report for beta
- Lower gullies of the route stays in the shade until around 10:30AM, pretty sweet to be climbing all that granite in the shade and not cooking
- Last reliable water is at the outlet of Ingalls Lake
- Plenty of bivvies on route
- At this point, there’s loads of cairns on the route. But it’s really, really helpful to do your homework ahead of time and bring photos and tracks of the route into the day. It will make things go so much smoother. These two trip reports were my favorites:
- https://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/topic/44925-stuart-west-ridge-more-beta-than-you-can-use/
- https://rocknropenw.com/2023/08/03/mount-stuart-west-ridge/
- We took the 4th class gully system getting up to LJT, was fine…even for a weenie like me
- Do the tunnel / ledge variation around LJT. . . it’s so fun!
- We roped up for the final pitches from West Notch. We did it in 4 pitches, not 6. Letty did it in approach shoes. We brought a 35 m rope and nuts with cams from 0.3-1.
Letty and I got going just after 630AM and hiked up to Ingalls Pass. We took the lower route down into Headlight Basin at Kyle’s recc. We went on the righthand side of Lake Ingalls to the outlet; there was some scrambling on slick rock at points but was avoidable with some better routefinding.
Mosquitoes were SWARMING; we filled up water at the outlet of the lake and switched into sun hoodies for the day. On our way over Stuart Pass towards the base of the route we remarked at how far the base of the North Ridge is from the Esmeralda Trailhead. . . maybe some day!
We reached the base of the route in just under 3 hours and were very happy to find the entire south facing gully to be in the shade! It’s pretty clutch that the route stays in the shade until around 10:30AM at this time of year, definitely worth investigating when it gets sun because I’d imagine all that granite to be an OVEN when the sun is blazing down. The gully is such good, high quality scrambling. Just like the beta said, go UP. . . it’s all fun class 2/3 to the top of the gully until you reach the dark headwall leading you over towards Long John Tower.
Once atop the first gully, the climbing got really fun and became like a maze. I won’t belabor all the beta that those other posts disclose. . . it’s been written and honestly the other beta is better than I have. The route at this point even has cairns in certain spots.
We chose to take the Class 3/4 route up the dirty gully before LJT, which we felt was one of the cruxes of the route. It was easy to find the hidden tunnel with cairns and the beta that the trip reports I linked to pointed out. The butt scootch ledge looked way more intimidating than it ended up being; I paused for a few moments before Letty headed down first.
We were cruising to the west notch; we made it there in just over 5.5 hours. The belay ledge on the north side of the ridge is AMAZINGLY positioned. Huge exposure to the north side of Stuart, looking down at the Stuart Glacier. . . wow. We were less prepared with the beta for the roped climbing section than the scramble section, to be honest. Letty led up but she’s used to much steeper climbing where the crack systems are easier to see. We faffed around on a few of the pitches before finding all the landmarks mentioned (sandy ledge, chimney, dual cracks with fixed piton). Honestly, I felt like the route finding on the scramble portion was easier than on the roped section. For the most part, the climbing on the roped section is mostly 4th/low 5th with a few 5.6-5.7 moves. If you’re a comfortable climber, I could see you feeling comfortable soloing the 5.6-7 portions. They aren’t terribly exposed and are pretty easy. I am neither of those, so I was very much appreciative of the top rope belay haha.
We topped out the summit at around 7.5 hours; it took us nearly 2 hours to get from the West Notch to the summit. A testament to how much time you can lose on the route finding through that section! We mosied down from the summit to the top of the Cascadian, following the cairns. There was a little snow remaining at the top of the Cascadian but was avoidable. I tried to take the snow for a bit but nearly had a wipe out; I was able to self arrest with my pole, thankfully, and backtracked to the choss.
The Cascadian wasn’t as bad as some have complained but it’s not great. It was the only time during the entire day when we were hot and the vibes went from Type 1 to Type 2 fun. There were brief periods of good sand surfing but for the most part it was just loose, shitty rock. Gaiters would have been clutch; I poured out much sand from my shoes by the end. Letty was very much over the Cascadian 2/3 of the way down.
At the bottom of the Cascadian we filled water and dumped out our shoes. We briefly enjoyed the cool river before getting swarmed by annoying flies. We quickly drenched our hats with water and began the final slog up to Longs Pass. Letty had a slight bonk from getting behind on calories during the Cascadian descent; a packet of Tailwind helped turn things back around.
We jogged the descent from Longs Pass to the car, which felt semi-awkward with heavy running vests with climbing equipment. I had slammed my bum on a rock on the descent down the Cascadian, so the bounce of my heavy Distance 22 wasn’t my favorite. We reached the cars in 11.5 hours, no headlamps needed!