Rowdiness on Dragontail

The day after Thanksgiving my friend Brendan and I headed into the Stuart range to kick off our winter climbing season. Motivated by some pretty pictures and beta on CascadeClimbers.com we decided to head out despite a miserable forecast, some suffering would make us stronger. We made it up the first couloir in the Triple couloir's route before turning around at the base of the runnels. The runnels were thin but forming! We were short on time and I wasn't to stoked on leading in those harder mixed conditions.

A leisurely approach got us to Colchuck lake in about 2 hours. Arriving around noon we had plenty of time to explore and look at our different route options, we had originally planned on climbing Colchuck's NE couloir but a close look at Triple couloirs on Dragontail had us excited. The base of NEC on Colchuck looked pretty challenging. Armed with 4 cams, 3 superstubby screws, a set of nuts and a few pins we figured we were fairly prepared for anything. After looking around and taking pictures we headed back to camp wondering how the weather would play into our decision.

 

Hurry up Lance! photo by Brendan Smith

 

Boulders.....Huge boulders photo by Brendan Smith

Second Couloir is obvious

Whad up Colchuck Lake?

Colchuck looking very frosty

First Couloir

base of the NEC on Colchuck

After our afternoon scouting mission we headed back to camp where some shenigans went down. We only had brought 4oz of fuel thinking we could get water out of the lake....turns out the lake was frozen so much time was wasted chopping through 6 inches of ice. Luckily we were well prepared with ice tools. Then we did some bouldering. It was rad. After our little boulder sesh we settled in to bed around 6:30pm! It was dark and there was nothing to do! 

 

Alpine Bouldering?  photo by Brendan Smith

Second Ascent! GRADE CONFIRMED

The next morning Brendan wakes me up at 5:30am to rain and wind. I had to go pee anyway so I got out of the tent and yes, it definitely was raining, I could see one or two stars but the tops of Dragontail and Colchuck were being assaulted by massive dark masses of clouds. I jumped back in the tent and we decided to wait awhile and see if the weather changed neither of us had any desire to go climbing in the freezing rain. Around 7:30 the rain had died down but the wind was whipping our tent around, our campsite was so protected I didn't want to imagine what it was like up higher. So he waited some more. Finally around 9:30 I woke up and crawled out of my warm sleeping bag. The weather was great! Some lingering clouds but no rain and little wind! Now I was pretty mad with myself, thinking I must be the laziest alpine climber who has ever existed. Sleeping in till 9:30! I didn't say much to Brendon as I packed up climbing gear, put my harness on and stormed off towards Aasgard pass. I was determined to climb something that day. There was an interesting looking ice flow or we could go check out the Triple Couloirs. 

Halfway up Aasgard pass I asked Brendan what he felt like doing. He pointed at the massive couloir on Dragontail and said "lets go check it out". I was hoping he would say something like that! So off we went. We arrived at the base around 10:45am and decided we would only climb as high as we could easily escape not wanting to commit ourselves to an epic night with a burly storm forecasted to strike in the next 12 hours. 

Finally we were climbing! Time to get rowdy! 

 

Lance climbing the first step into the first couloir. Photo by Brendon Smith

  

 

Brendan approaching my belay

Brendan pulling through the second steep step around the chockstone cave

Looking up to the top of the first couloir

 

Looking at what we thought might be the runnels

We decided to head down. 

Brendan starting to downclimb

Yes, I forgot chapstick

Prepping to rappel photo by Brendan Smith

Most awkward rappel ever! 

 

More downclimbing

A last rappel. Much faster and safer than down climbing

Once off the route we cruised back to our camp as it began to rain. We both agreed today was a success and I felt a little better about being a lazy piece of shit that morning. Breaking down camp went quickly and off we went slipping and sliding down the trail back to the TH.

Complete/Direct North Ridge of Mt. Stuart 6 hrs 45 mins

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!

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

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.

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!

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. 

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. 

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.

Climb faster Lance! (photo by Todd Kilcup)

This is my happy face (photo by Todd Kilcup)

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.

Lance leading out of the notch (photo by Todd Kilcup)

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!

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. 

Myself fiddling with cams as strength was ebbing (photo by Todd Kilcup)

Belay station with friends (photo by Todd Kilcup)

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! 

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!

Lance getting worked on 20 freaking feet of 5.8! (photo by Todd Kilcup)

Chris and Molly steps from the top! Stuarts shadow in the background! (photo by Todd Kilcup)

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! 

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.

My bivy ledge (taken with my crappy cell phone camera)

The glowing orb of life rises again! (photo by Todd Kilcup)

Stuart's shadow this time to the West (photo by Todd Kilcup)

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! 

Can you find the three climbers? (photo by Todd Kilcup)

Almost to the creek! (photo by Todd Kilcup)

Are you serious? Swithbacks up to Longs Pass (by Todd Kilcup)

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.

West Ridge Prusik Peak in a day

Prusik Peak! 

With a couple days off and perfect weather there was no question I was going climbing! My friend Ben had been dying to get out and climb all summer so he could get back his street cred on Facebook as a badass climber. This was obviously a problem we could only remedy with an outstanding profile picture from the top of Prusik peak! Ben didn't have much experience alpine rock climbing so the West Ridge was a perfect solution if we survived the long and tedious approach and descent. I was also curious to check out the steep south face of this peak for future adventures.

We departed the trail head early at 5am right as the sun was beginning to rise giving ourselves plenty of time for the 11 mile approach.

One of the spectacular lakes on the approach

Hello!

Ben on the approach

Baby goat!

Mama goat

The Enchantment lakes are awesome!

After the long approach we scrambled up to the base of Prusik and began climbing! Ben changed into his Hawaiian shirt essential for an epic FB profile picture. We started climbing and once again I dominated the sharp end of the rope after hearing some hesitation from Ben (this was his first alpine rock climb). The route was totally cruiser and totally classic!

Climb faster Ben!

Ben making the last move to the summit!

Lance on the summit? (photo by Ben Brodin)

Finally on the summit of Prusik peak we captured some epic profile pics for Ben, did some relaxing and massaged our sore feet. After our brief celebration we located the standard descent anchors and began rappelling over "kitty litter" ledges and loose blocks from one anchor to the next. A few rocks pitched down from above but we evaded those with our ninja skills and continued on. We traversed back around the peak to the route's base where we could have left our packs and eventually found ourselves back at the shore of one of the Enchantment's stunning lakes. We filled our water bottles and began the grueling hike back to the Snow lake trail head. 

Overall an awesome day! Honestly it is quite a long walk for such a short but nonetheless totally classic route, if you're looking for the perfect girlfriend climb ;) this is it! Camp down at one of the lakes a couple nights! 

Notes:

-Bring a light rack with a lot of slings

-5.7 slab move is very short (really only one move) Don't psych yourself out about it and you will be fine! 

-Bring a Hawaiian Shirt