Home > Trip Reports > May 20, 2018, Mount Stuart, Cascadian

May 20, 2018, Mount Stuart, Cascadian

5/20/18
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
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Posted by zigz on 5/22/18 5:10am
Left TH a bit before 5am for a car to car attempt. It was probably a bit late of a start, but we didn't really care as we had all day and solid weather.

We didn't put skins on at any time for the approach. Although we could have skinned 1,000' up to longs pass looking back.

It's boney up to longs pass. We were able to ski down about 300' above the creek crossing and were able to pick up the trail to the log crossing using our GPS with little issue.

We then began the climb. We hit a strip of snow about 5500' (roughly) and continued to boot pack to the false summit. We had two spots where we had a quick easy scramble in the Cascadian couloir which would require a transition on the ski descent. There will be quite a few more breaks in the snow cover over the next week likely.

The couloir is quite melted out but it was a fun and tight ski descent.

When gaining the false summit we saw quite a few massive wet slides. Two climbers were ahead of us which we didn't see until we were gaining the final slope to the false summit (they took another route). We hung out with them for a bit on the false summit and were grateful they had left us a boot pack to the true summit as it's a bit spicey and I've never been up there. We reached the summit successfully after 9+ hours which was much longer than I anticipated due to boot packing in soft snow likely (first big day of the year also).

On the ski descent from the false summit we did a big ski cut around 4 pm and set off a thin layer of the entire remaining slope that hadn't released yet. The sun had been in an out all day (mostly out after 2pm) and it was quite warm. The slide was easy to predict on the descent.

It was a fast ski descent back down to 5500' (est). It wasn't sticky at all, but were skiing 35-45 degree slopes the entire descent. We then had the long climb out and took quite a bit of time making our way back.

I'd recommend doing it with a bit more snow. We were up there same time last year and it was much more filled in. Super hard day but very fulfilling as always. Stuart is a beast. I think that route is more challenging then all the standards on all the WA volcanos with steep snow climbs throughout and a dicey summit approach.

Final stats: 8888' of gain, 10.1 miles, 16 hours. My GPS died just before picking up the trail dropping longs pass.
pics

Summit
Longs pass on the return
Stuart from afar at dusk

Was just going to add a post to this.  We lost 2 potential ski partners due to other commitments (or lack of commitment), so Gavin and I meet up at 2:30AM Monday for the same trip as you described.  I would suggest this route as "effectively" being out because of how skinny the snow already is down at 5500/5600' and will be unskiable below 6200' and the first big rock scramble any day now.  We turned at our prescribed turn time of 1pm at the false summit after having a lunch break.  It really heats up after about 12pm.  We felt the danger from wet slides was limited due to the nature of the skiing aspects, the number of hot days we have already had, and the limited amount of snow remaining.  Even so, we weren't willing to stay out much later and 1pm is pretty damn late and we were plenty tired after 12 hours 20 car to car.  Anyone who can make it from the car to the true summit in 6.75 hours - kudos!  We were 7.25 to the false summit.

We didn't see much in the way of pollen, but I understand pollen is taking out most other low elevation skiing. 

We saw 1 other guy all day - he was hiking to Long's pass.  Only his car in the lot at the end of the day.  Pretty cool wilderness experience up there on a beautiful Monday!

Rad. Nice work! We just missed you at the TH. Probably left around 11pm!

Thanks for the timely post. Nice pics!

Seems like the low snow year (east of the crest) combined with a hot May have shortened the Stuart ski season by a couple weeks.

How did fortune mountain look? Still snow or bony there too?

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may-20-2018-mount-stuart-cascadian
zigz
2018-05-22 12:10:21