Stuart Glacier Couloir

This time I teamed up with Eiji Sugi and our prey was the Stuart Glacier Couloir, an icy couloir that splits the gnarly north side of Mt. Stuart to its west ridge where a few more pitches of fifth class rock stand before the lofty summit.

Beginning our 19 hour day at 2:30am wasn't a problem! I was so stoked! I knew this route would challenge all the skill, strength and knowledge I've gathered over my 6 year climbing career. The route was intimidating but I knew I was ready and Eiji had just out ran a tornado in his dreams. Honestly, that's pretty badass.

Anticipating a long day we kept a moderate pace on the approach to the base of Mt. Stuart we carefully weaved our way up the Mountaineers creek drainage careful to not lose the faint climbers trail and rock cairns to avoid wasting energy being lost. Around 6am we emerged from the treeline into the presence of Mt. Stuart, the king of the Stuart Range.

Whoa! Mt. Stuart

Ice Cliff Glacier

We cruised past the Ice cliff Glacier which looked super rad! By now it was super warm so stopped to strip off long underwear and continued to the base of our route.

Eiji traversing above the Stuart Glacier 

This is what we came for! 

At the base of the Couloir we stepped easily across the Bergshrund and cruised up towards the ice steps. Finally the climbing was getting interesting and I could hardly wait to sink my tools into some hard alpine ice luckily Eiji was happy to let me lead! We had two short ice screws and a spectre ice piton for the two pitche above us, this meant no falling and some creativity at belays would be in order. We simul-climbed the first step before extending the rope to full length. Eiji set up a belay and I headed up.

What's up Eiji!

The ice runnel

I found a bomber piece of ice for my sole screw half way up the pitch and continued on. After a few swings I placed the spectre ice hook figuring it would at least slowdown a fall. The ice wasn't steep enough to be to worried to much anyway. Some more swings and I hear Eiji yelling ZERO! Guess that means no more rope so I begin hammering in my tools and kicking a good stance then I belay Eiji up with a hip belay and hope the small chunks falling around us don't turn into belay ripping death missiles. Eiji climbed up quickly and then lead out the easy snow field to the notch. 

Eiji heads up to the notch on the right

At the notch we relaxed for a bit and enjoyed the phenomenal weather. We drank some water, enjoyed some snacks and then began simul-climbing on rock and snow towards the summit. We dropped down and climbed back up to another ledge and followed a ledge system on the north face to a very exposed move before climbing back up to the crest. We dropped on to the south side and traversed a ways before finally picking our way to the summit. Route finding was very difficult we found slings and pins frequently but some routes didn't make much sense or were to intimidating to attempt. Leading each snowy rock pitch in mountaineering boots was tough and required a calm and steady mind, all my recent climbing at Index was definitely paying off. It seems like a farther traverse onto the south face would lead to easier and faster climbing. 

The summit from the notch

Simul-climbing the first parts of the ridge

A very short rap off the crest seemed easier than down climbing slippery rock

At 4pm we stood on the summit of Mt. Stuart, 13.5 hours after leaving the trail head! White whispy clouds would swirl around us curious to see what were doing and then quickly float away. A few photos and a celebratory whoop-whoop and we began our descent down the Sherpa glacier. 

Summit Views 

Summit views east toward Lake Ingalls 

Summit views

Summit views of the rest of the Stuart Range

Eiji begins the descent, definitely a cornice above the Ice Cliff Glacier route

We glissaded some of the Sherpa glacier and made it back down to some warm rocks in the basin an hour and a half later. We enjoyed the running water and some freeze-dried spaghetti and the last of our power bars and began the hike back to the car at 6pm. We stumbled our way back down to the car focusing the lst bits of our energy into route finding through the basin until we found the trail. Finally at 9:30pm the parking lot came into view, we celebrated with Pringles and hit the road!  

It was an awesome 19 hours in the Stuart Range and a great climb! The Stuart Glacier Couloir is an Alpinist's dream, it has all the ingredients for a complex and challenging adventure. I feel grateful to have climbed it with Eiji who had climbed it years ago and was happy to give me the chance to test myself on all the hard pitches. I'm also grateful to his wife and boys who let me tear him away for these great adventures!

Sandy Glacier Head Wall, Mt. Hood

I spent this last weekend on Mt. Hood's remote Sandy Head wall a very interesting and cool climb with David Cap, a great friend and my Denali partner from last year! With a day and a half to spend in the mountains we thought the Sandy Headwall would be a good challenge plus it would be relatively safe from rockfall being on the western side hidden from the sun for the whole morning we would be on it. After meeting up with David at Timberline we began our very casual approach to Illumination rock where we planned to bivy.

Hiking up the ski area (Photo by David Cap)

The mighty Illumination rock

We arrived at Illumination Saddle around 6pm where we met a friendly climber from British Columbia who we chatted with while choking down freeze-dried dinners and melting snow. Swirling clouds around the summit brought about suspicions that the crappy weather predicted for Sunday may be coming in a day early. Nevertheless we crawled into out tent with optimism for the next day. We woke up with clear skies and busily prepared ourselves to start climbing. In twenty minutes we were ready to go, leaving our tents and sleeping bags around 3:30am. We dropped from Illumination saddle onto the Reid glacier with no problem and a few maneuvers around giant crevasses put us at the base of the scary Yocum ridge, where we planned to cross. The snow and rock crossing was a bit treacherous but eventually we were on the Sandy glacier and cruising toward its impressive headwall.

David down climbing to a snow bridge to get us on the Sandy glacier

David coming up through a narrow gap low on the Headwall 

As we worked our way up the headwall it got steeper and more interesting as the cathedral of rock and ice narrowed. Rather than just plodding up steep snow we found some decent alpine ice to swing our tools into and a couple ice screws and pickets were placed. Surprisingly very little debris fell from above us apparently our strategy to avoid the sun and inherent rock fall on the west side of the mountain was working!

Upper portion of the Sandy Headwall

David climbing through the rock band

Lance leads placing a picket and screw (photo by David Cap)

Into the sun! (photo by David Cap)

David at the top of the Sandy Headwall 

After finishing up the head wall we took a break to enjoy the mountain, as well as some snacks and water. I asked David how he felt, "there are no words to describe such a great climb" was his response! I couldn't agree more!

From there we finished our climb to the summit where we took the obligatory summit shots and watched wicked clouds snake their way up the crater and over the summit ridge.

Lance with the summit behind (photo by David Cap)

David enjoys the glorious day

After almost a year without sharing the mountains together I was glad to get out with David. The last time I had seen this guy we were parting ways on Denali's West Buttress where he had decided he'd had enough, while I stubbornly persisted another 5 days.