TR: Upper North Ridge of Mt. Stuart

My two friends, Dave and Tony, and myself attempted to climb the upper north ridge of Mt. Stuart in a day on August 15. We approached from the south and commenced with the hiking at 330am on Monday, August 15. We made it to the top of Goat Pass in about 4 hours. The glacier crossing took another 4 hours. This was my first experience with crampons and an ice ax. The snow started getting harder and harder as we approached the north ridge. The snow did not go all the way to the notch, and we bailed onto 4th class terrain as soon as the opportunity presented itself. We began climbing from the notch at noon. We simul-climbed the whole route, excluding the Gendarme. The upper pitch of the Gendarme still has the fixed #4 camalot. We topped out at 8pm. The descent (Cascadian) does does involve some "route-finding" which can be difficult for the first time on the mountain combined with the lack of sunlight. We decided to bivy about halfway down the colouir at about 1130pm. The next morning took about 4 hours to reach the car, which included finishing the descent, hiking back up Longs Pass, and then descending back to the trailhead.

The north ridge of Stuart is an awesome climb with mindblowing exposure. I wore a GoPro for parts of the climb and still get goosebumps watching the footage. I highly recommend this climb to anyone looking for an adventure.

Kyle - cool - congratulations. Yeah - very special and awesome climb! You guys climbed it in great style. Thanks for the trip report.

Wally

No problem Wally. Definetly the biggest adventure I have undertaken to date. It really opened my eyes as to what is possible in the alpine world. I am very excited for future adventures!