Mount Stuart, West RIdge - June 27th and 28th, 2009.
The superstar cast included George “Climbing Fool” Reeves, smiling Jim Lapp, Smart Alex Korteum, and myself.

With possible rain forecast for the North Cascades, we opted for our “Plan B” in the always sunny Stewart Range. Thus began this alpine enedeavor of George “Climbing Fool” Reeves, smiling Jim Lapp, Smart Alex Korteum, and myself. With Big Blue packed to the gills, we headed off to the Teanaway River valley Friday evening. A stop in Cle Elum yielded, among other things, two whole greasy chickens, a couple pounds of Jo Jos and beverages. “Dinner” (if you can call it that) was devoured by the time we got to camp, so we had time to sort gear, chit chat, and drink beer by the a fire. Glimpses of Stewart revealed considerable snow in the gullies, drawing concern about our decision to leave crampons and one individual’s axe back at home.

Our plan was climb the West Ridge and bivy near the summit. I’m not entirely sure George and Jim were really keen on this idea, but I wooed them with the promise of the best camp site they’d ever have. So, at 6:15 we were on our way to Ingalls Pass. My guts kinda hurt from that godawful chicken dinner, but I figured it would pass. We made good time to the pass where the behemoth Stewart revealed itself in full glory – and GOSH THERE’S A LOT OF SNOW in the western gully we’d approach the ridge from. “Oh Shit!”, I thought, “these guys are gonna kill me if we go all the way in there with these heavy packs and can’t climb this thing”. At Stewart Pass we encountered several goats who were enamored with the “liquid salt” we provided (great pics). I was sure I was developing a case of irritable bowel syndrome or something as it felt like I had a bag of glass shards in my intestines. Jim, in his own special way, continuously reminded us that the chicken wasn’t agreeing with him either.

Traversing from Stewart Pass into the approach gully we discovered that we could bypass most of the snow. So, off we went for about 2,000’ of scrambling on “exquisite granite” (and a few snow traverses) towards Long John Tower. A climbing party of two, which we’d seen ahead of us earlier, now materialized from below. After belaying a short steep pitch, we waited to let them pass since we had lots of time and figured they’d move more quickly than our party (NOT!!!). As it turns out, they were uncertain of the route (read – lots of questions) and preferred to follow us. By the time we got to the west ridge notch it was 5:30. Given that they had to get all the way back to their camp at Ingalls Lake, we again offered to let them pass. Surprised that there were still five pitches to climb, oh, and IT IS getting late. “So, where do we go from here”, he asks? My guts (now twisted in a double fishermans), farts (neither beautiful or neat) not providing relief, and patience finally waning, I offer that while I’d climbed the route before, chronic dope smoking has clouded my memory and that the best way to climb it is to “just go up”. Not kind, but I was getting irritated at this point. They reluctantly went ahead, calling back for route beta the rest of the evening

The roped climbing from here is fantastic and we bypass by several nice bivy sites. Despite climbing behind our VERY SLOW “friend” (and his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend), we’d decide to  summit and bivy on the downhill side. Finally, at 8:00 (nearly 14 hours from the trailhead), we arrive at the 9,400’ summit of Mount Stewart for a spectacular sunset. A few quick pics, knuckles, backslaps and we head below to find a bivy ledge for four. In the setting sun, we find suitable accommodations and we watch our friends stumbling over toward the ridge leading to the Cascadian Couloir for the 4,000’ down climb and another 3.5 miles of trail hiking in the dark. We all agree that she’s gonna kill that dufus. It’s 9:15, and, watching them, we forget about the heavy packs and are thankful for my sleeping bag. We settle in for a windy night, boil up some food and water and hit the hay. Exhausted and knowing that we’d have to down climb snow on the way out, we consensually decide we’d sleep in. A couple of airplane bottles later, and satisfied from a challenging day in the mountains, we melt into the rocks under a sky full of stars at 9,000’.

While I haven’t slept well (wind and air traffic all night), we collectively rise when the sun touches our sleeping bags – it’s 8:30. After breakfast and coffee, we find our way east and down the ridge and snow to the Cascadian Couloir. We opt to take the western gully, which is steeper, but appears to touch down near the Longs Pass trailhead in Ingalls Creek. This turns out to be a considerably faster way down than the broader “Cascadian Couloir” that most folks take. Across Ingalls Creek, up Longs Pass and back down to the trailhead is hot, miserable, and uneventful. I drift into kinda hazy stumble-run for the last three miles with an unspoken mantra of “beer at car”, “beer at car”,… playing in my head. Everyone gets down safely and we opt to skip out on the chicken dinner as we drive through Cle Elum and back home.

SUMMARY: Total elevation to summit - 5,500’ (includes about 600’ lost elevation) in about six miles. Total travel time 14 hrs – at a moderate pace. Water/snow available on much of route.

GEAR: Two small racks (nuts and cams) to 2”, two ropes, ice axe (not critical), rock shoes (glad I had them, but could have done without), bivy gear, airplane bottles.