Mount Stuart - Complete North Ridge - 08.06.2024

 The Complete North ridge of Mount Stuart is likely the most famous alpine rock line of washington state. The bold route, named in the 50 classic climbs of North America, stands out on the North side of Mount Stuart, splitting the Ice Cliff and Stuart glaciers with more than 3000’ of granite, which some scientists believe came from Mexico. If only it had come a little closer to one of the main highways.

The complete north ridge in the skyline from the north ridge of sherpa

The complete north ridge is the obvious ridge in the center. Taken from the summit of Colchuck Peak.

The Car logistics of stuart are super tricky, if coming in from the north it’s easier to get to the climbing, but you then either need to rappel down the ice cliff glacier(bringing snow/ice gear) or go through sherpa Col, which entails a lot of extra walking. You could also go from the south, but that requires a tricky traverse around the west ridge and a long approach. We opted for the rarely done option 3, car shuttling. While definitely time and gas consuming, it made the whole climb much more straightforward. We started at Stuart Lake TH and finished at the Esmeralda TH.

Red: hiking                  Blue: Climbing

On Sunday evening I drove up to meet Emily at the Esmeralda TH. I put my expired forest pass on the car, and we drove off towards Leavenworth. We arrived at Stuart Lake TH around 8 to sort out gear and get some good sleep. I cowboy camped in the parking lot with a creepy deer while Emily enjoyed the luxuries of her car sleep-setup. At 04:00, our alarms rang and at 04:30 we were off. Since we had done the mountaineers creek approach the week earlier, we knew we could always traverse the talus field, but from other trip reports, we wanted to see if we could find the trail along the creek. It can be found by turning downhill and following the cairns once you reach the entrance to the boulder fields. Once you're along the creek follow the trail and if you ever lose it, just keep walking and you'll find it eventually. It always sticks between the talus and the creek so you won’t ever be far from it.

We eventually started our trek up towards the Stuart basin. We grabbed water in the trees to the left about 100 yards before they ceded to the boulders. From here, the north ridge was obvious and we began our slog up to the moraine. Once on the moraine, it was a quick walk to the toe, where a pitch of class 4 climbing awaited before the last obvious belay ledge. We arrived at the little ledge and gladly unloaded our packs around 09:00, about 4.5 hours after leaving Stuart Lake. Emily took the first pitch, getting the packs stuck while trying to haul them past the squeeze chimney. We also broke a trigger string on a Metolius ULMC #3. Nice training wait I guess. It was nice we had doubles. The second pitch can easily be linked with the first if you have a 60m rope but I guess I should’ve looked at more beta before, since I wasted a few minutes wondering if I was done after the 20m of climbing. It might be hard to haul packs  if linking these up though, since it’s a little wandery and there were numerous places for packs to get stuck.

The third pitch is the crux by far. It was Emily’s lead, but she ended up aiding a good bit of it. If this is near your limit, I highly recommend at hauling the leaders pack, I was able to follow on TR with my pack on, but as a novice trad climber, the 5.9+ was definitely pumpy. From there, we switched to simuling and tried to make good progress. We had to pitch out a few little crux sections, still moved fast. Having a micro-trax for each person on this route is super helpful. They’re great for hauling packs, belaying people up rope-draggy sections, and fall-proofing simul cruxes. This first simul block was fun, with lots of optional route options to spice it up. You often aren’t within earsite so radios are highly recommended.

Emily following up a simul block

After 7ish hours of simuling, we reached the slab with the crack pitch. It’s kind of cool I guess but it’s honestly a bit overrated in my opinion. After leading it, we found two bivy ledges 60m below the great gendarme. It felt great to take the packs off and get some food in my stomach. Since my ledge was slanted outward, I tied in and tried to go to bed. It was hard to close my eyes though, since everytime I opened them I’d be looking at the great gendarme and my 5.9 lieback to start the next day. Eventually I got to bed, waking up every hour to readjust and stop myself from rolling off. 

A view of the great Gendarme from my bivy

I was awakened the next morning by mosquitoes attacking me. While all I wanted to do was cuddle up in my bag against the cold morning air, I had to swat a skeeters trying to eat me alive. When Emily woke up and said we should get going, I didn’t disagree. She led the slab up the base of the great gendarme, with me having to go on simul for the last 20 meters. At the base, I racked up and tethered my pack, intimidated by the 5.9 lieback. It went much easier than expected though. There were rest sections every couple moves and I never got pumped tryna place gear. At the top, I brought the packs and Emily up, and she started up the offwidth. After french freeing it(thanks to our #4, worth the weight), she brought me up to a good belay alcove. 

Emily Following the Lieback

me at an airy belay ledge

To go from there, we had to descend a little bit to traverse over to the notch. I had too much rope-drag and had to stop at the Bivy ledges before the notch. We climbed over a gendarme, having to rappel it to finally get to the last crux, a great 5.8 finger crack. For other parties, take the downward ramp at the Bivy ledges, even if it seems like it goes too far down, it’ll avoid an unnecessary rappel. Emily again french freed it and I led one long simul block to the summit. We topped out 50 feet from the summit, put away the rope, and at 11:00, completed our climb of the north ridge of Mount Stuart. After a few summit photos, we started our descent of the Cascadian. It’s not hard to get over to it, just follow the cairns and don’t go down the obvious couloir you see from the summit. It’s hard to imagine, but that somehow gets worse than the Cascadian.

On the summit

While annoying, the Cascadian descent was pretty straightforward. It was nice to have a trekking pole for the scree skiing but other than that, it’s just a lot of sand in your shoes and cursing at yourself for choosing this sport. Jimmy Chin said in Meru that “the best alpinists are the ones with the worst memories”. While I’m still waiting to do Nooksack tower this weekend to call myself an alpinist, I totally agree with this sentiment. I keep thinking to myself as I write this how the Cascadian wasn’t that bad. Similar to how I already wanna try glacier peak c2c, even after the 18 hour push from camp-summit-car. A bad memory isn’t terrible. As long as it doesn't kill me, It keeps me pushing myself.

    Once at Ingalls creek, we decided we didn’t feel like climbing Ingalls peak. While we had the energy and it was totally do-able, it felt anticlimactic. We’d just completed the biggest alpine rock route in the state, and now we were gonna climb this red piece of rock? It was like trying to bag little T after Rainier. We also joked about just hiking out the Ingalls creek trail to US 97 like on sherpa. Luckily we actually had a car this time. My car was a great sight. We reversed the car shuttle to come across Emily's ticketed car( a FS employee who doesn’t have a NW forest pass) and I was back in Seattle around 10:00. By the time all my gear was inside, I was already thinking about when I’d climb it again.

Sherpa Peak - North Ridge - 07.28.2024

 I’m not sure how I feel about the north ridge of Sherpa. The climbing wasn’t spectacular and I honestly could’ve simulated the whole thing. The approach and exit were fuckin terrible. But at the same time, it was an unforgettable experience, and those attributes made it unequivocally Cascadian.

The original plan was  to link up two routes on Vesper, mile high club, and Mt Triumph all into a 3 day weekend. The Easy fire on Hwy 20 quickly foiled that plan since emily lives in Mazama so we instead chose to meet up in the stuart range. Me and emily would climb on the snow creek wall on friday, and then link up the North Ridge of Sherpa and the South Face of Argonaut. I don’t have a ton to say about snow creek wall. We climbed outer space, saw a mountain goat, and then got out at noon. On friday evening, we met cole in town to discuss plans.

Emily on Outer Space

Our plan was to climb the North Ridge of Sherpa on Saturday, descend and Bivy and sherpa col that evening, then climb the east ridge of argonaut to the south face. We aimed to get back to the car by 3 so cole could make his doctors appointment in seattle at 7. Since we knew there’d be snow at sherpa Col, we brang a stove and enough fuel to melt snow for 3. We drove to our communal vacation home (forestlands parking of course) and set alarms for 04:30.

The North Ridge of Sherpa Peak with the East ridge of Argonaut behind, taken from the North Ridge of Mt Stuart.

By 05:30 we were off on the stuart lake trail. It’s one of the busiest trails in washington and while that makes it horrible, given that we’d only be on it for an hour, I decided to at least have some fun with it, trying to pass as many people as possible. It’s quite fun to pass trail runners while carrying a 35 pound overnight climbing pack. Similar to the feeling you get passing E-bikers on “analogue” bikes, though at least these trailrunners are abiding by wilderness regulations so I don’t feel a dislike for them.

After a little walking past the colchuck lake turn-off, we reached the mountaineers creek climbers trail. It was our first time and we made the mistake of following the cairns to traverse the talus field. Then, we were too high and were stuck either schwacking through slide alder or climbing a few hundred feet above the slide alder. By now we were past our estimated approach time, and we still couldn’t see the ridge. We eventually made it up into the sherpa-argonaut basin, about 4 hours after leaving the car. From here we could see the notch we would gain to start the north ridge, and I think that’s when we all realized we were in for an epic. After more than a thousand feet of talus field climbing in the sun, we racked up and flaked the ropes at 11am.

Sherpa-Argonaut basin, with Colchuck(left) and Argonaut(right) in the skyline.

The first two pitches to get to the first notch were the technical crux of the route, but they allowed us to get our heads in the game and figure out the rope system for 3 people. From the ridge, we began a long afternoon of pitching out the ridge mixed with soloing and a little simuling. We found Lemke’s beta about getting to the second notch and by the time we got there, it was 6pm and we figured it would be the best spot to bivy. We were well behind schedule and doubted our chances of getting argonaut. With the sunset winds at full blast, we made our meals, did our best to shelter from the winds, and tried to doze off. Watching a party make their way up the West ridge didn’t help us get to sleep any faster.

Cozy in my protected bivy

And Cole’s not so protected Bivy

At sunrise, we woke back up and got into a groove. The pitches from here were much better. While still licheny due to the routes rarely climbed status, it felt much more solid and after four hours, we topped out. With Stuart to the West and Argonaut to the East, it was beautiful summit. 

On the summit

The descent was the true crux of the route. We got to Lemke’s “cascadian esq gully” but after seeing the traverse we’d have to do, Cole gave us another option- descend into ingalls creek and follow the trail to us 97, where we’d hitch a ride back. After underselling us by 4 miles on the mileage, we were convinced and proceeded to schwack down to the creek. After 2 hours of talus descent and bushwack, we hit the trail around 2pm. This was when Emily checked the actual stats of the trail, about 9 miles of hiking plus 2 miles of road walk. We realized how fucked we were but there was nothing we could do, and proceeded to slog. 

The Cascadian-esq gully

At 6, me and Emily came out far ahead of Cole, deciding to try and hitch a ride back so we could pick up Cole if he was unable to get one. We rode in the back of a truck to the highway, and then proceeded to fail to hitch a ride for 20 minutes. Eventually, we were picked up and were lucky enough to get a ride all the way back to forestlands. We met Cole in town, who had paid two crackheads to give him a ride, and enjoyed the experience of coming back from an epic adventure into the tourism center of Leavenworth, a stark juxtaposition every time.

Colfax Peak - East Ridge - 07.23.2024

 Emily had mentioned Cole while climbing together and noted how I’d like him. Eventually, she gave me his number and we figured we’d do East ridge of Colfax Peak together to see how we vibed. Cole had just done the North Ridge of Baker two days earlier so it was convenient for him and I was excited to do some snow climbing rather than rock. Cole mentioned he had gotten out of shape in colorado and I wasn’t feeling like suffering so we decided to split it up into a mellow two days. I drove up monday morning and met Cole in B-ham where we grabbed some groceries and headed up to heliotrope ridge TH. the road is a classic FS road and after hundreds of potholes, we arrived.

Baker is the big snowy thing on the left(the north ridge in the left skyline), Colfax is the smaller rocky thing on the right.

The Hike in was quick. The trail is steep but we quickly arrived at our camp, overlooking the baker seracs. Since we had lots of time and didn’t want to get attacked by mosquitos, we decided to do some serac cragging with our four Ice screws. I had just got quarks so it was exciting to actually climb ice with them. I toproped some AI3, we did some laps, and then headed back up to camp. I made the mistake of not bringing a mosquito net(I don’t have one since I don’t consider them ‘sexy’ pieces of gear) so after some quick dinner, we tried to get an early sleep, aiming for a 3:30am wake up. Cole used his phone for the alarm and I woke up at 05:00. Apparently Cole just wanted to sleep in. Given that Colfax is a pretty chill peak, I was fine with it and we got going by 05:15.

After an hour of hiking, we got to the snow. The Slog up the Coleman was hot but easy. We brought skis to make the way down quicker but even with that added weight, we were at the col by 09:00. After simuling a steep snow traverse over some crevasses, there was a short steep snow pitch and we topped out at 11:00. We took a five minute break, then decided that it was kind of windy and started our way down.

Traversing

 

On the summit

The way down was pretty uneventful. We descended before corn-o’clock so it was brutal on the legs but we were at camp by 14:00. After stopping at camp, we blitzed down the trail passing hikers. At one point a group of hikers got out of the way for us but directed us toward the toilets. After joking that they must’ve thought we were two horny gay mountaineers, we climbed back up to the trail and made clear our straight-ness before continuing and arriving at the car at 15:30. 

Cole skiing suncups

All in all it was a great chill two days in the alpine. Cole and I got along well and have since become regular climbing partners. Hopefully I can come back one day to climb some of those hard ice routes on Colfax.

Cutthroat Peak - South Buttress - 06.28.2024

 So this was pretty long ago and I’m not gonna delve too deep into it but I figure that I might as well write a small little report about it. Emily and I had skied the Colchuck Glacier some time ago and she decided to get me into alpine climbing. I drove up there friday morning and we set off for Cutthroat at around 08:00. The approach was simple and son we were climbing up the approach gullies. They were loose but soon we were near the top, where we roped up for the pitch to the top

Once at the ridge it was pretty smooth sailing to the top. There was a fun crack pitch somewhere in the middle, and to finish it off, a nice offwidth that put us on the summit. Since it was my first alpine climb, it was an entirely new experience for me and got me hooked. The views were great, and clear skies opened up the north cascades.

The descent down the west ridge went easy. After some scree skiing, we reached the basin where an hour of hiking brought us to the car.

Glacier Peak - Suiattle Glacier - 06.13.2024

 Day 1

I’ve been putting off writing this trip report for a while but with school now starting, I figure it’s a good time. Glacier Peak is probably the hardest Volcano in the state. With a horrible approach and it’s wilderness nature, most parties do it in three days. Keenan and I planned to make the most of the alpine snow by hitting it as soon as we got out of school. The approach consists of 13 miles of walking along the North Fork Sauk river and 4000’ of climbing up to white pass. Because of this, we planned to do it as a three day trip, giving us a somewhat relaxing schedule.

Glacier Peak

Keenan picked me up in Seattle at 07:00 on Thursday and by 10:00, we were at the trailhead with our loaded 55lb packs. As we started up the trail, minimal blowdowns let us keep a good pace along the river. We ran into 3 parties who summited the day before, exchanging reports of great alpine conditions. As the switchbacks started, Keenan slowed but we still maintained a good pace. Halfway up the switchbacks, military planes came soaring close above us. It’s pretty surreal being far out in the wilderness when these modern planes come sweeping above the treeline. 2000’ of switchbacks, we got to the traverse over to White Pass, where many snow patches slowed us down and wet our socks. Cute marmots on rocks made it tolerable.

Marmots chillin on the way up white pass

At 16:00, we arrived at White Pass. Skinnable snow started here and we put on skins to traverse over the rest of Marmot Knob. Taking the boots and skis off our packs made them feel luxuriously light, even though they were still a solid 45lb. From there we skied into the basin our whole world turned into snow and rock. It’s a surreal feeling, being in such an enclosed alpine environment, and one I hope to experience more. At 19:30, we decided to call it a day. Our reasons were that we’d be able to go about our camp rituals in the light, It’d give us more time skiing without overnight packs, we were near a nice bivy spot, and obviously we were tired

Keenan in the basin

Me and Glacier Peak

Setting up camp went smoothly. The snow was great for ski anchors and while our tent was cozy, it still provided enough space. After some quick water boiling and a great mountain house dinner, we tucked ourselves away in preparation for an early start the next morning. Forecasts showed lots of new snowfall the next night so we decided to move camp to white pass the next day.With alarms set for 01:30, we readied our bags and tried to get some rest.

Day 2

01:30 came quickly. After some oatmeal and piling some snow on the tent to keep it from blowing away, we were skinning by 02:00. Getting to Glacier Gap went quickly and we were soon descending onto the Gerdine Glacier as the first traces of light shown across the horizon. There were clouds down low but we could see the peak and hoped for a beautiful day. From here, we skin up to Disappointment Col was sloggy but beautiful. Keenan started to drag behind but we continued upward. At Disappointment Col, my bowel system started to act up. With gusts of 30mph, I got out the wag bag. You can probably imagine the struggles without me describing it but needless to say, I was glad it was all out and it wasn’t an experience I’d like to repeat.

Glacier Peak from Glacier Gap Peak Col

Keenan working his way up the glacier

Above us was clouds but with a long time until our turnaround we continued up. Once we made it to the Disappointment-Glacier Col, we found ourselves in a brutal wind tunnel. Scared at the thought of booting up with sails on our backs and skiing down ice with brutal gusts that had the potential to knock us over, we left our skis at the Col and booted up. Within an hour, we were on the summit in a whiteout.

It got pretty cold, me in my alpine action suit

Final few feet to the summit

Summit Selfy

After a few summit photos, with knowledge of the rest of the day, we quickly descended down to our skis. Since the sun didn’t come out, the skiing was icy and slow. However, it was still faster than walking and we got down. After a boot back up to glacier Gap, it was a quick ski back to camp. We packed up quickly and with heavy backs, started the skin back to White pass at 14:00. The slope up to the Marmot Knob traverse was brutal, but at 16:30, we got to white pass.

Keenan doing some shitty skiing

At white pass, we decided to get all the way back to the trailhead. Though it would’ve been safe to camp there, the next day would be very wet and rainy. We decided instead to try to make it all the way back to the trailhead. We turned our heads down and worked our way down white pass. The descent went quicker than expected and from there it was just a long walk out. We made a great pace and while the last mile felt endless, got out at 21:30 to the cars. Here we discovered a flat tire and after being harassed by mosquitos,  started the drive back. 

Almost to white pass

Glacier Peak truly shows Washington's wilderness. I can’t imagine another place in the lower 48 where one can feel so separated from civilization. I’m profoundly grateful to live in such a beautiful state and hope that many of my friends can one day share similar experiences.

Eldorado Peak - East Ridge - 05.27.2024

 Sometimes you just gotta go and take a look. That was my philosophy this spring, where we lacked good weather windows and corn cycles. After a great uncertain-forecast day on Baker, I set my sights on Eldorado. It’s one of the 50 classics, and a popular easy climb in the cascades. We got to the trailhead on Sunday night, where we scoped out the river crossing and talked to a party of three also going up the next day. After a few hours of sleep, we were on the move at 03:00. The initial steep bushwacking was brutal, but we gained elevation fast. We were passed by two trail-runners but still felt good about our pace. 

Keenan being one with the Talus

Eventually we made it out to the Talus field, where we slogged and scraped our skis up for hours. By the time we made it out of the Talus field, we almost caught up with some snowshoers. We put on skins near the NOLS tents and worked our way onto the Eldorado Glacier where we were passed by the party of three. Though it was a whiteout, we decided to keep going since we still had visibility and a skin track.

As we followed the track, a solo splitboarder caught up to us named Emily. Since it was a whiteout on a glacier, we decided it’d be good if we all stuck together. After some traversing, we realized the skintrack went too far, and as I checked my phone, I dropped by glove on the steep crusted slope. Keenan went after it but his ski came off and flew down the hill out of site. Momentarily, the clouds parted and we saw his ski 300’ below. Once we regrouped, we headed up to the summit knife-edge, topping out at 11:00.

Keenan going down to his ski

Me nearing the summit 

From there, we skied down great snow and after a few hours of talus and bushwack suffering, made it back to the car at 15:00. While we didn’t get great views, it was still a great day and I met a new partner.

Mount Baker - Squak Glacier - 05.19.2024

 After climbing it the previous summer, I really wanted to ski Baker. The weather was looking iffy but Keenan and I figured we could get beta from the snow goat race the day before. We drove up Saturday evening with no issue and quickly got to work getting gear together for the next day. There was one other party at the trailhead planning to ski the day after, and we enjoyed a nice conversation with them.

Ski touring essentials

We set off around 04:00 and tried skinning the trail. After realizing walking would be much more efficient, we switched back and finally switched to skinning when the route departed from the scott paul trail. We felt a little behind schedule but still confident. As we exited the trees, we saw Baker tower over us. It was pretty cloudy at that elevation but this spring, I had decided to get out and at least take a look so we decided to keep going until it didn’t make any more sense. 

Keenan and the slog

The slog up the glacier was draining but I was feeling good. My running from the spring was paying off and I was dashing ahead of keenan. We took breaks every hour or so and by the time we reached 7k, keenan was drained. The clouds had went below us by then so we were feeling confident we could summit. We kept slogging along. The squak was super filled in with no crevasses we actually needed to get around so we chose not to rope up. At 11:30, we reached the base of the roman wall, where the true fun began.

​​Keenan bonking 

Above the clouds

As I booted up the Roman Wall, I kept thinking the top looked only 20 meters away but once I got to that point, a new 20 meters appeared. Eventually I made it up 45 minutes later, with keenan taking almost double the time. We walked over to the true summit and enjoyed the amazing views and Keenan’s  text from his grandpa asking about the weather up there. It was pretty good. 

Summit

We started our descent at 13:30. The roman wall skied well, though it could’ve been a tiny bit softer. Halfway down the Squak, we entered a whiteout but knowing there were no cracks along our route, we just followed the tracks, going very relaxed. The Squak descent felt endless but eventually, we hit the treeline. The snow got a lot stickier but we quickly hit the trail. From there it was an endless walk back to the car where we took off our packs, thankful to live in a state with these beautiful mountains.