Plan was the Magic S-loop but got scared by the cloud machine at cascade pass. Switched to going up Sahale, Skiing down to the lake, and then getting a lap in on the other side of the saddle. Didn't feel like doing the scramble but got close to the top. Still a fun day, if I had known about the pass' tendency to gather clouds, maybe would've went over to Cache col at least. Guess I gotta go back.
Too lazy to write a full Shuksan TR but it was a good time. Circumnavigated and summited. Erik flew the hanging glacier. Biggest day I’ve done so far. Heres some photos.
Been getting out a good amount but mostly ski-mountaineering. Since this was a more climbing-y thing, I figured I’d post it. With Monday off, I wanted to get one more trip out of the Spring break by giving an early season attempt on Ingalls. Mid-day Sunday, Asher and I drove out to Esmeralda and got the car a little past Beverly Campground. We began walking at 16:00 and set up camp at around 6000’ at 20:00 a little below ingalls pass. I had my splitboard, Asher had snowshoes. My lighter ended up freezing so we had cold soaked oatmeal and fresh carrots for dinner. Cold soaked oatmeal is just cereal anyways. The next morning we got moving around 06:30 and were at the base of the South Ridge of Ingalls at around 08:30. There was more snow than expected overnight so but I figured I’d at least give it a shot.
We started by booting up an entrance couloir. The top of it contained a dusting of snow above a slab, but a short little boulder move brought us onto a sub ridge. From here we butt-scooted a little bit until we reached the rock. A short little step brought us to the belay. Here I roped up and started up the route in ski boots. The rock was very icy with lots of snow in the cracks, but with big cracks, it was still reasonably comfortable with ski boots. I found the passive pro super useful with the icy cracks. Honestly I should've brought way more nuts.
Eventually I got about 30 meters up and found myself stuck. I stuck my Gully in a crack, tied in direct, and switched from ski boots to climbing while backed up by a hex. I was feeling pretty patagonian by now… on a 5.4. I looked around but decided to try and follow a crack system on the left. Asher lowered me off the hex and belayed me as I traversed across closer to the ridgeline. Here looked more promising so I continued climbing up. Higher up the crack, I was nearly postholing in climbing shoes. Near about 40 meters, at the top of P.2, I reached a band of snow and Ice. I couldn't continue up and eventually placed in a bomber nut and lowered off after bounce testing it while backed up. Halfway down I pulled the rope again and got lowered off of a nice slung horn. I think it could’ve been possible by drytooling but I wasn’t quite desperate enough to scratch up such a popular route(also I’m definitely not that confident of a drytooler). I’ll hopefully be back this summer anyways to link up the ridgeline between Ingalls and Sherpa.
Anyways, once I arrived back at the belay, we found an older rap anchor to make a final rap to the approach gully. I got some consolation turns as Asher suffered on snow shoes. We got back to camp and kept going down. We ended up back at the car by 16:00, just 24 hours after leaving. While we didn’t get the summit, it was still a great time getting out and I learned a few things about winter climbing. The truth is we just had a lot more snow and ice than expected, and climbing an icy slab without drytooling is next to impossible. Better than sitting around in the city. Next person up the South Ridge gets a little booty! Always good to learn to bail.
Figured I’d post up this trip report for a few reasons. Firstly, it felt like a nice story with a good theme of growth. Secondly, I appreciate this site and want it to continue to thrive. I look at it before every climb. Facebook doesn’t have the soul, nwhikers has hikers and I’m a little elitist, and TAY has a Price Glacier TR that I can’t compete with. I also see myself as more of a climber than a skier, even if this particular adventure was more ski focused. Lastly, I have college apps coming up(UW please accept me), might as well get a little reflective writing practice going. Might as well try and channel my inner Mark Twight. I don’t dream of being eaten alive by rats but I listen to Joy Division if that helps.
Mount Stuart, particularly Ulrichs, holds a special place for me because it was the first big backcountry line I wanted to ski. Reading the Kyle Miller trip report back as a freshman opened my eyes to how rad backcountry skiing could get. It called my name and got me obsessed with the sport. From there I convinced a friend at school to get a setup and in late May of that year I asked my parents to let us ski Ulrichs. It was a good thing they said no. I’m not sure my sleeping bag was warm enough, our available backpacks big enough, and our minds were definitely not experienced enough. I held a small grudge after that but looking back, it was a wise decision from them. Since then I’ve had a good amount of time to develop my skills in the alpine. I’m probably still a cocky overstoked youngin but at least I’m one with a tiny bit of experience behind me.
With my spring break coming up, I hit up Emily about some touring. This current high pressure system is allowing great climbing conditions but we figured we’d hit Ulrichs on sunday before using Monday as a rest day and grabbing the isolation traverse Tuesday -> Thursday. After a relaxing Saturday, I drove up late Saturday Night, reaching the end of the drivable road at around 11. I quickly got to bed with my alarm set for 02:30.
02:30 came quickly and by 03:00, the crew of Emily, Erik, Pat, and I were starting up the sleds. Emily’s old sled had some trouble with the choke, but by 03:15 we had it all loaded up and were moving. Bumping our way down the Teanaway at three in the morning, I was proud when I realized it felt like a pretty normal weekend. It’s been my intent to get after as much as possible, so the lack of novelty I felt while making our way in the full-moon while most everybody was sleeping was something I was proud of. The back of the sled wasn’t the most comfortable ride but 45 minutes later, we reached the trailhead.
After taking some time to get sorted out(the bathroom is unlocked but BYOTP btw), we were moving at 04:15. We followed some timbersled tracks a good ways before realizing we were too far climbers-left and traversing over right. The snow was hard but we were able to get purchase without putting on ski crampons. After a short little boot to Longs Pass, we had a nice view of Stuart in the morning light. Cornices loomed on the Stuart Side but there was an easy way through. With the bright moonlight we were able to ride down the firm slopes to ingalls creek. From here we decided to go straight to booting, which, with the steep firm slopes, proved to be a decent call.
I’ve done Stuart twice before(1x north ridge, 1x Cascadian) so it wasn’t my first time on the Cascadian. For me, it’s just a slog I need to embrace and get into the groove for. Eventually the guide-stepping got me in the flow and we were making good pace. By 10:00, we were at the col below the false summit. With the wind starting to pick up, Erik and Pat took out their Wings and decided to fly down from there. Emily and I were still on boards so we gave them a radio and worked our way up towards the summit. On this slope, the snow had reached a pretty good corn. It still felt safe to boot though, we just took caution to not sit in the fall-line as the sun warmed up the slopes above us.
The final traverse to the true summit is what many people consider to be a crux in the winter. The climbing felt secure yet the steep cliffs below put things into perspective. Eventually we got to the final snow slope below the true summit. By now the snow was getting very warm and balling up on my crampons. I kept kicking in steps, having to wack snow off every minute. Though the snow was warm, the lack of roller-balls was reassuring and by noon, we were at the true summit.
We didn’t waste anytime to begin our descent. The snow up top was soft with variable underneath. Once we got in the couloir it was all frozen up but we decided to continue on with a lot of side slipping. Looking back, I was glad I didn’t ski this line two years ago. With steep, sustained, icy slopes, it demanded lots of control. I’ve been able to get a better sense of my limits in the past years, but riding this line two years ago would’ve been much more uncertain. We ended up escaping a little before the correct exit and being shot back into the couloir. There was minimal booting to get out of the real couloir before the waterfall. From the creek it was a nice climb back up to Longs where we met Erik and Pat, enjoying great corn back to the snowmobile at 15:00, 11 hours after starting.
By 6pm, I was back home in seattle making dinner. When I was just about to start eating I looked on instagram and saw Colin Haley’s story about selling gear in seattle. I immediately left my nice warm noodles to go get a Petzl Gully and a few lockers. While this trip gave me a sense of the experience I’ve already gained in the mountains, it was a great reminder of how young and inexperienced I still am.
The peak bagging bug has been getting to me recently. Maybe it’s always getting at me but the countless TR’s I’ve been reading definitely get me going. The forecast for the weekend was originally great so I started with plans for a longer ski traverse. But as the weekend approached, it the weather started turning poor. Not wanting to sit around all weekend, I made plans with Emily for a day trip up Cashmere on Sunday. The weather showed clouds but might as well give it a try. Late Friday night I drove over to Forestlands. 5 hours later I was back awake and by 6:30, me and Emily were walking on 8-mile road. The road was very melted out for early April so we were soon on the Lake Victoria trail. From here, in approach shoes we started climbing up a steep snow slope with intermittent brush. I was putting a lot of faith in my approach shoes on the steep, frozen slope. Luckily I never slipped and by 7:30, we put skins on.
From here we started moving as the sun came out. I regretted my clothing choices but I just rolled up my pants and kept at it. Soon we were traversing down to victoria creek, where we were hidden from the sun by the surrounding valley. We kept moving up and by 10:30, we were at the lake. We took a quick break at the lake to drop our approach shoes, heavier gloves, and take a look at our line. Victorias secrete couloir looked very filled in but also well hidden from the sun. The other, more obvious couloir had tons of wet debris below it.
From here we quickly crossed the lake and worked up the obvious gulley, switching to booting about halfway up. We were feeling good and soon in the basin below the summit. We decided to take a direct line up the snowy face to the top, where a party had already summited. As we worked our way up we watched them ride down the bottom half of the NW face. The climb up the NW face was fun and secure with an ice axe. After a nice summit break with views of the Stuart Range, we began our descent down.
We booted past the chokepoint on the NW face and took a skiers right line. From here we went over to the entrance of Victoria’s Secret Couloir, but soon realized it was too icy. We booted out to the main gully and rode soft snow with fun texture to the lake. From here the exit was straightforward, just following our tracks to the road with a little bit of skinning. We got to the car a little under 11 hours after we started, all in all a nice day in the Stuart Range.
Plan was the Magic S-loop but got scared by the cloud machine at cascade pass. Switched to going up Sahale, Skiing down to the lake, and th...
