April 13, 2008, Mt Stuart, Ice Cliff Glacier
4/13/08
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
5612
6
Yesterday Monika, I, and my favorite world traveling steep skiing frenchie loving nuclear physicist had the pleasure of skiing Stuart's Ice Cliff Glacier in near perfect conditions.
We set off from Icicle Creek Road around 4:30 am sat morning under stars, a half moon, and cool temps. Heavy packs and little sleep did little to slow Sky and Monika from busting the necessary pace. When we got our first glimpse of Stuart we were all excited by the amount of snow we saw.
The Ice Cliff Glacier, barely visible, runs up to the col just left of the false summit:
From then on it was only a matter of putting one foot in front of the other. Sky and Monika broke trail the whole day. It was kind of amusing watching two of the strongest and fastest people I've ever had the pleasure to climb with bust a trail together. Maybe humbling is a better word.
Climbing the route proved to be almost as enjoyable as skiing it. We encountered two ice bulges which allowed for some fun tool work:
And then steep powder the rest of the way:
Sky wormed his way thru the cornice at the top, we followed, and just like that we were sitting atop our line.
Seeing as the ice cliff gets no sun this time of year, we decided we had time to summit. So after ditching our skis at the false summit en route, we scrambled the rest of the way up beautiful Mt Stuart.
Sky and Monika on the summit:
The Ice cliff is a phenomenal route. Long, sustained steepness in an extraordinary setting with pure solitude.
The deproach back to the car tired us all out, especially the road down to Icicle Creek. It's about 2/3 covered with snow,although Monika and I left our skis on for all but a few hundred feet. Which on the bright side gave us an opportunity to add what Monika calls "structure" to our bases.
See Sky's TR here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=790256
We set off from Icicle Creek Road around 4:30 am sat morning under stars, a half moon, and cool temps. Heavy packs and little sleep did little to slow Sky and Monika from busting the necessary pace. When we got our first glimpse of Stuart we were all excited by the amount of snow we saw.
The Ice Cliff Glacier, barely visible, runs up to the col just left of the false summit:
From then on it was only a matter of putting one foot in front of the other. Sky and Monika broke trail the whole day. It was kind of amusing watching two of the strongest and fastest people I've ever had the pleasure to climb with bust a trail together. Maybe humbling is a better word.
Climbing the route proved to be almost as enjoyable as skiing it. We encountered two ice bulges which allowed for some fun tool work:
And then steep powder the rest of the way:
Sky wormed his way thru the cornice at the top, we followed, and just like that we were sitting atop our line.
Seeing as the ice cliff gets no sun this time of year, we decided we had time to summit. So after ditching our skis at the false summit en route, we scrambled the rest of the way up beautiful Mt Stuart.
Sky and Monika on the summit:
The Ice cliff is a phenomenal route. Long, sustained steepness in an extraordinary setting with pure solitude.
The deproach back to the car tired us all out, especially the road down to Icicle Creek. It's about 2/3 covered with snow,although Monika and I left our skis on for all but a few hundred feet. Which on the bright side gave us an opportunity to add what Monika calls "structure" to our bases.
See Sky's TR here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=790256
Nice work! Stuart's looking fat this year!
Cool! This TR along with Dave's on Rainier is getting the spring stoke going.
author=Monika link=topic=9778.msg39341#msg39341 date=1208187767]
otherwise i think i'd die starting the evening before with no snooze like Hannah, Daveb and Jason ;) (way to go!).
You don't know unless you try ;). :).
Nice work! I would love to get a little Stuart in my life.
It was the first time I tried it and it worked surprisingly well!
author=trumpetsailor link=topic=9778.msg39344#msg39344 date=1208188261]
You don't know unless you try ;). :).
It was the first time I tried it and it worked surprisingly well!
Nice trip guys and Monika. Great choice given the high freezing levels. Thanks for the story and pictures. Very inspiring.
Well done! Simply superb!!
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