First I have to thank Todd for such a fantastic climb! I also have to thank Todd for sharing all his pictures with me so I could have something to put in my blog! My camera died and was nothing but dead weight for pretty much the whole climb. I came fairly close to hurling it off into the Ice Cliff glacier but restrained myself. Todd is another avid blogger whose writing, pictures and trips definitely deserve some attention! So check it out here! http://toddkilcup.blogspot.com/2013/09/mt-stuart-north-ridge-direct.html His blog also has much more specific route beta!
Walking into the Seattle REI is a dangerous proposition for just about anyone but for myself its especially dangerous. Having worked there in the past and knowing many of the more ambitious employees I rarely leave without scheming up a new adventure or purchasing something shiny. This time I ran into Todd Kilcup also know as ToddSome (Todd+Awesome) by his fellow employees and boy did we scheme up an adventure! Upon realizing our days off coincided Todd uttered 5 simple words that sealed our fate "Direct North Ridge of Mt. Stuart" the name of a route which had topped my tick list all summer!
I hadn't climbed with Todd in a long time! I guess marriage (CONGRATULATIONS) comes before running off into the mountains, but just barely! I was stoked to be climbing with Todd, a big change in pace compared to the clients I work with on Mt. Rainier. He was going to kick my ass! The customer trying on climbing shoes in the store that afternoon witnessed our mad planning session, adding and subtracting from our rack and gloating about just how light our packs were going to be on this trip. Luxuries such as a stove would be left at home!
A few days later I met up with Todd in the Issaquah park and ride at the modest hour of 5:15am to begin our adventure! Between climbing stories Todd brought up the idea of bivying on the actual summit of Mt. Stuart if we climbed fast enough. I instantly pressed down harder on the accelerator.
We departed the ingalls lake trail head around 7:30am cruising toward the base of our route! I was pleased with the straight forward route finding and friendly terrain free of heinous bushwacking, sketchy river crossings and confusing river valleys.
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| Mt. Rainier and Ingalls lake from the approach (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
Walking into the Seattle REI is a dangerous proposition for just about anyone but for myself its especially dangerous. Having worked there in the past and knowing many of the more ambitious employees I rarely leave without scheming up a new adventure or purchasing something shiny. This time I ran into Todd Kilcup also know as ToddSome (Todd+Awesome) by his fellow employees and boy did we scheme up an adventure! Upon realizing our days off coincided Todd uttered 5 simple words that sealed our fate "Direct North Ridge of Mt. Stuart" the name of a route which had topped my tick list all summer!
I hadn't climbed with Todd in a long time! I guess marriage (CONGRATULATIONS) comes before running off into the mountains, but just barely! I was stoked to be climbing with Todd, a big change in pace compared to the clients I work with on Mt. Rainier. He was going to kick my ass! The customer trying on climbing shoes in the store that afternoon witnessed our mad planning session, adding and subtracting from our rack and gloating about just how light our packs were going to be on this trip. Luxuries such as a stove would be left at home!
A few days later I met up with Todd in the Issaquah park and ride at the modest hour of 5:15am to begin our adventure! Between climbing stories Todd brought up the idea of bivying on the actual summit of Mt. Stuart if we climbed fast enough. I instantly pressed down harder on the accelerator.
NOTE: ALL PICTURES ARE BY TODD KILCUP
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| Locked and Loaded (Photo by Todd) |
We departed the ingalls lake trail head around 7:30am cruising toward the base of our route! I was pleased with the straight forward route finding and friendly terrain free of heinous bushwacking, sketchy river crossings and confusing river valleys.
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| Mt. Stuart from Ingalls Lake |
Don't bring an ice axe and crampons for a late season climb. Without them your pack is lighter and climbing the first pitch with the flaring slot is nearly impossible with any gear strapped to your pack. I managed to traverse the snow slopes with the shoes I ran cross country in my junior year of High School. Saying these shoes are worn out would be an understatement!
Upon pulling myself up to the top of the Gendarme I introduced myself and shook hands with Molly, rigged a belay and Todd began climbing! I watched as Chris climbed the 5.9 offwidth/fist jam pitch with total style! Molly headed up and shortly after Todd did too!
I topped out and realized the heavy #4 cam we dragged up here was still hanging on Todd's harness! He didn't even use it after I dragged it all the way up here just for this pitch, I guess a tipped out #3 was good enough! From the top of this pitch there was one more 5.8 step and then a single pitch of simul climbing and we would be on the top!
Topping out on Mt. Stuart was awesome! The sense of relief and achievement was stellar! Todd and I had been on the move all day for more than 10 hours focusing on climbing efficiently and safely keeping the morale high with high fives and food! Todd checked his watched and smiled! 6 hours and 45 minutes on route! Way faster than I could have ever hoped for! Just doing the ridge in a day was a feather in my hat! I wanted to sit on the top forever and soak in the success but daylight was fading quickly and it was time to find a place to sleep!
Every time I go into the mountains I strive for improvement. I want to be stronger, faster, more efficient and safer so I can maximize the enjoyment and push myself into longer harder more intimidating objectives. I'm not sure where the obsession comes from but when i'm looking at big routes in Alaska or huge walls in Pakistan that explode from their valley floors my mouth twists into a smile and my body twitches with excitement. I can imagine the burn in my legs and taste the cold fresh air already. I want to go there and climb so I make every climb here in the cascades count. This climb of Mt. Stuart's Complete North Ridge with almost 4000 feet of technical climbing was a solid bench mark for me. Now I know I can climb hard and long and my systems are dialed. The weather and conditions obviously were perfect but from experience on Rainier I've found adverse conditions to only make things more engaging and interesting.
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| No Ice Axe required (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
We arrived at the base of our route around 11:30 where we proceeded to gorge ourselves with delicious mountain water. We knew it would be a lot of climbing before we were blessed again with water.
We simul-climbed through the first and second pitches passing the pair of climbers without hesitation upon their generous offer. Todd completely crushed the third 5.9+ crux pitch of the climb and I enjoyed following it. At the top of Todd handed me the rack and I took off! Climbing strong and efficiently placing minimal amounts of pro. I wasn't worried at all about Todd keeping up.
Somewhere above the notch I heard and saw another team above us, I yelled down to Todd before turning it up a notch! We hoped to catch them before the two harder pitches on the Great Gendarme but they were climbing fast, probably trying to stay ahead of us. We eventually met up with them at the base of the Gendarme and were pleased to meet Chris and Molly two of Todd's friends and good company to share our summit bivy with!
At the base of the Gendarme I watched Molly crush the first 5.9 layback pitch while I crushed a snickers bar hoping it would help me up the next two pitches. It had been a long day and I was a bit tired.
A pair of climbers were just ahead of us on the route so we waited and watched as they wormed their way up the flaring slot on the first pitch of Mt. Stuarts complete north ridge.
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| Lance leading pitch 1 (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
We simul-climbed through the first and second pitches passing the pair of climbers without hesitation upon their generous offer. Todd completely crushed the third 5.9+ crux pitch of the climb and I enjoyed following it. At the top of Todd handed me the rack and I took off! Climbing strong and efficiently placing minimal amounts of pro. I wasn't worried at all about Todd keeping up.
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| Climb faster Lance! (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| This is my happy face (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| The Simul-climbing begins! (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
Three simul-climbing blocks later we arrived at the notch where the upper North Ridge route connects to the Complete North Ridge route. Up to this point I had felt a little weird, maybe it had something to do with climbing Mt. Rainier the day before. Reaching this point in such good time meant we could definitely bivy on the summit if we continued at our pace. We rested for a few minutes before continuing towards our 9,416 foot objective.
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| Lance leading out of the notch (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| Awesome climbing! (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
Somewhere above the notch I heard and saw another team above us, I yelled down to Todd before turning it up a notch! We hoped to catch them before the two harder pitches on the Great Gendarme but they were climbing fast, probably trying to stay ahead of us. We eventually met up with them at the base of the Gendarme and were pleased to meet Chris and Molly two of Todd's friends and good company to share our summit bivy with!
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| So much amazing knife edge ridge climbing (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
At the base of the Gendarme I watched Molly crush the first 5.9 layback pitch while I crushed a snickers bar hoping it would help me up the next two pitches. It had been a long day and I was a bit tired.
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| Myself fiddling with cams as strength was ebbing (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| Belay station with friends (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| Epic belay? (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
Upon pulling myself up to the top of the Gendarme I introduced myself and shook hands with Molly, rigged a belay and Todd began climbing! I watched as Chris climbed the 5.9 offwidth/fist jam pitch with total style! Molly headed up and shortly after Todd did too!
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| Looking down the offwidth pitch (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
I topped out and realized the heavy #4 cam we dragged up here was still hanging on Todd's harness! He didn't even use it after I dragged it all the way up here just for this pitch, I guess a tipped out #3 was good enough! From the top of this pitch there was one more 5.8 step and then a single pitch of simul climbing and we would be on the top!
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| Lance getting worked on 20 freaking feet of 5.8! (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| Chris and Molly steps from the top! Stuarts shadow in the background! (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| On the top of Mt. Stuart in the sunset! |
Topping out on Mt. Stuart was awesome! The sense of relief and achievement was stellar! Todd and I had been on the move all day for more than 10 hours focusing on climbing efficiently and safely keeping the morale high with high fives and food! Todd checked his watched and smiled! 6 hours and 45 minutes on route! Way faster than I could have ever hoped for! Just doing the ridge in a day was a feather in my hat! I wanted to sit on the top forever and soak in the success but daylight was fading quickly and it was time to find a place to sleep!
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| Amazing sunset! (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
Sunset descend upon us as we settled into private little bivy sites since none where very big among the summit's boulders. I ate my dinner of smoked salmon, cheese, a bagel and a few sips of water before laying down to a well deserved long night of rest. Luckily I woke up sometime in the night to use the bathroom and enjoy the millions of shiny stars above. It felt amazing to have the whole night sky to myself for a few minutes before crawling back into my sleeping bag and my dreams. A few hours later I woke to a fantastic sunrise.
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| My bivy ledge (taken with my crappy cell phone camera) |
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| The glowing orb of life rises again! (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| Stuart's shadow this time to the West (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| Little Buddha man living on Stuarts summit (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
Around 8am the four of us began our descent down Mt. Stuart's Cascadian Couloir which kept us on our toes but didn't present any major challenges and eventually we arrived at the trail back to Ingalls Lake Trail head. We hunted down the creek and celebrated with gulps of the delicious mountain water and debated the quality and taste of our various energy bars! We prepared ourselves for the slog back up to Longs pass with a head dunk into the creek and off we went!
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| Can you find the three climbers? (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| Almost to the creek! (photo by Todd Kilcup) |
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| Are you serious? Swithbacks up to Longs Pass (by Todd Kilcup) |
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| Wooooo!!!! With Stuart in the background |
Every time I go into the mountains I strive for improvement. I want to be stronger, faster, more efficient and safer so I can maximize the enjoyment and push myself into longer harder more intimidating objectives. I'm not sure where the obsession comes from but when i'm looking at big routes in Alaska or huge walls in Pakistan that explode from their valley floors my mouth twists into a smile and my body twitches with excitement. I can imagine the burn in my legs and taste the cold fresh air already. I want to go there and climb so I make every climb here in the cascades count. This climb of Mt. Stuart's Complete North Ridge with almost 4000 feet of technical climbing was a solid bench mark for me. Now I know I can climb hard and long and my systems are dialed. The weather and conditions obviously were perfect but from experience on Rainier I've found adverse conditions to only make things more engaging and interesting.
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