May 6, Mt. Stuart, Cascadian Couloir

My friends Paul and Jonah joined me for a trip to Stuart on Saturday night. We were unsure of road conditions and brought our mountain bikes, which turned out to be a good move.  The road was impassable at about 5 miles from the Esmeralda trailhead so we parked the truck, threw our bags on the ground and went to sleep for a few hours. 

After much fiddling with gear we got started at 4:35 Sunday morning.  Cold temperatures made the packed snow plenty hard for riding, but I was sliding around quite a bit initially. I deflated my tires to about 15 psi,  and then the riding got pretty fun. The snow coverage was intermittent, going from 2-3 feet of hardpacked snow to sections of bare ground. We rode to within two miles of the trailhead and stashed the bikes, thinking that we would have full coverage from that point (we didn't).

I parted ways with Jonah and Paul at the Esmeralda Trailhead at 5:30, as I had planned for a speedy ascent and they were more inclined to go at an easy pace. The coverage was good after the initial 50 feet of trail and I made good time towards Long's Pass. I took a circuitous route higher up, ascending the ridge to the East of Long's Pass because I wasn't exactly sure of the trail, and wanted to make sure I didn't end up in the Ingall's basin. From the top, the way was obvious and I dropped down to Long's and found an easy route through the cornice. The run down to the base of Stuart was awesome- chalky snow and big GS turns. After poking around a little I found a log to cross the creek on and was hiking up the Cascadian at 7:35.

The first two or three hundred feet of vert. was bare, but after that there was good coverage to the top. At about 7,000 feet I began to feel the effects of the long, fast approach and was wishing I had got more sleep-  2 1/2 hours was apparently not optimal. For the next thousand feet I was really dragging ass, and felt like hell. Then I heard voices up ahead and soon caught a glimpse of two climbers above me.

For some reason the human contact gave me a second wind and I started to hammer again. I quickly closed in on them and followed their tracks up the left side of the couloir. At about 8400 feet they were in some steep terrain in rock bands on the West side of the Couloir. I called up to see if they were looking for the notch that you use in the summer to descend from the peak. they said they were, but soon reported that it was too steep. It looked to me like they weren't going anywhere that made sense.

I traversed right under the rock bands and found myself at the bottom of a steep snowslope that went up toward the false summit and was bounded on the right side by a large fin of rock. I thought it looked like the steep section merged with the main couloir right below the false summit, so I started up. It quickly became much icier and steeper than I wanted it to be. Below me, the climbing party was retreating. 3,500 foot downlimb in crampons, yeehaw!

My calves were soon burning from frontpointing the "snice", and I was going very slowly, kicking each crampon placement carefully. I was now wishing for ice tools, and my new ultralight Camp Corsa axe was not giving me the secure feeling I craved. (At 7 oz. the Corsa is awesome in the pack and works well on moderate slopes but it was scary on 60 deg. snow and ice.) I usually use a Whippet as a second tool on stuff like this and really noticed the difference relying on one light alpine axe. After climbing very slowly upward for for 4 or 500 feet I finally reached the top of the fin and my altimeter showed 9.000 ft. Of course, the route didn't go. It dropped off sharply to the right above the rock fin. Above, it terminated in the rock of the false summit.

I cussed a bit, wished I wasn't there, and eventually downclimbed the icy section until it felt safe to hack out a ledge and put my skis on. The skiing was actually a lot better than the downclimbing and I had fun skiing the rest of the way down to the main couloir. By now, clouds had moved in and it was storming a bit, so I was more than happy to skip tagging the summit, and ski the 4,000 foot run to the base.

The snow felt pretty punchy on the lower slopes as I started up to Long's Pass, so I climbed the ridge to hiker's left which turned out to be a very safe and scenic route out of the basin.  By the time I got to the top it was cooling off again, and snowing as I began the ski down. I saw Paul and Jonah's tracks down, so I figured they must have turned back and would be waiting at the truck. The snow was a little soft, but not punchy like down lower- just lots of fun to ski.

I reached the Esmeralda TH at 2:45, and began the slog to the bikes. It was too spotty to keep the skis on for long and I was sooo happy to reach my bike. The rest of the way down was awesome, as someone in a high clearance rig had driven most of the way up and their ruts went almost to the ground. I soon found that a gentle touch would get me nowhere and I was blowing through the drifts at top speed, spraying snow and fishtailing like mad.

Paul and Jonah were waiting for me at the truck and we wasted no time in hightailing it to Ellensburg for some barbecued pig of dubious quality.

I think it'll still be a few weeks before the road is open all the way. The snow is still really deep and continuous for the last few miles. Does anyone have recommendations on good grub in Ellensburg?