Mt Stuart from the North

When Rad first asked me if I wanted to do the North Ridge of Mount Stuart with him, I could hardly refuse. It had been one of the climbs that was always on the list, but seemed a bit out of my league, until I took a confidence building trip to the Bugaboos. The plan would be to go light, with only emergency Bivy bags, and go up and over in one day. We would shuttle one car to the Esmeralda Basin trail head, and start from the Stuart Lake trail head and Approach via Mountaineers Creek. Seemed easy enough when we discussed it over beers after climbing around in the Gym on a Tuesday, but little did we know what we had in store.

After not being able to get off work until my usual 5pm on Friday afternoon, I rushed over to get the last of my things before heading out to meet Rad. We had a lot of driving to do and the sooner it was over the more sleep we would be able get. I met Rad on I-90, where he had gotten some Thai food for us both so that we would not have to stop on the way anywhere. From there it was onward to the Teanaway River Road and the Esmeralda Basin trail head.

Once at the trail head, we spent a few minutes sorting out camping gear so that we had sleeping gear and some food once we got back to that car. I filled out a day use pass and placed it on the front of my dashboard and we were off back down the road. Quickly, I realized that I had forgotten my camera and sunglasses in my car and we lost about fifteen minutes as we turned around to retrieve them.

Are you taking all the crap!

As we got into Leavenworth, we pulled over to make up the rack and pack in the Safeway parking lot. I was bringing the rope, along with my Harness and miscellaneous biners and gear, as well as liner gloves, fleece gloves, fleece top and bottom, a balaclava and a fleece hat. Including my food and water, my pack was pretty light for a trip of such magnitude. Rad was just bringing the rack, and some food and water, confident that we would reach the top in time to get back out before having to stop due to darkness.

Soon we were rolling down Icicle Creek Road and pulled into a bivy spot to setup the tent for the short nap before heading out. I set my watch for 2:05am and we laid down for the evening watching the meteors streak across the sky until we were finally asleep. It was just past eleven o'clock.

It seemed like only a moment until my alarm started ringing and we both piled out of the tent to eat breakfast and drive the last bit of the road to the trail head. Once there, we finished our last preparations and started up the trail head, only so that I could turn back to grab my camera that I left in the car. A pattern had begun to develop for the day and it was only 3:30am.

Morning shadows on the North Ridge

We quickly made our way up the trail to where we thought the climbers path up Mountaineers Creek started, with it being marked by flagging. We looked for a several minutes and never found the flagging, so we started to do a traversing bush whack through the woods towards the creek. I was sure we were in the general area, but felt that we may be going in the wrong direction. Rad persevered and we soon found the climbers path that leads up to the basin to the east of the lower North Ridge.

Lower North Ridge route

A large Boulder field lay between us and our objective when another duo of climbers appeared from below and passed us as we took a quick break. We played leap frog with them on the last grueling mile up the boulder field. One of them finally passed us as we sat to gather water near a nice stream at the top of the gully leading to the ridge. We reached the base of the route at 8:00am and started just ahead of them while they were preparing to simul-Solo the lower pitches.

Author leading on Pitch 1

Rad leading up Pitch 2

I Lead up the first pitch, climbing past a small twisted tree, through a short 5.8 Chimney Move, and up to a ledge with a small bush that was adorned with Rappel slings. I brought Rad up, and right behind him was the other party, who quickly passed us and gave us a bit of guidance as to where the route went. Rad led through a short 5.9 lie-back that the follower of the other party thought was the "sucker" Crack that was off-route, and I quickly followed, taking a short fall in which I was able to catch myself. We were moving pretty well so far, but then things started to change.