Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Trip planning and preparation

Mount Stuart is a famous mountain in Washington state among climbers (Smoot's "Climbing Washington's Mountains" 100 Peaks). Our plan is to climb Mount Stuart from the standard Cascadian Couloir route. The route is described in summitpost as follows.

Cascadian Couloir: Class 2 & 3 when snow free. Cascadian Couloir has become the standard route from the south and is probably the most climbed route on the peak. It is also the standard descent route from the mountain. There is some class 2 & 3 scrambling between the false and true summits when snow free. In the early season, this section includes some steep snow and is normally heavily corniced.

We plan to start from the Esmerelda Basin Trailhead and then take the Longs pass to Ingalls creek and camp there for one night. We will start to climb the next morning.

This will be a very strenuous climb and we need to train ourselves for this adventure.
  • Scramble skills: start from easy ones to tougher ones to improve our skills. The scramble classes are described by this video. Some tips and hints could be found here.
  • Snow travel: there might be some snow fields to cross in the couloir. Need to know how to use ice axe and crampon.
  • Basic rope techniques: such as belaying and rappelling in an emergent situation that we might run into some difficult terrain. This is not expected, but better to be prepared for it.
  • Route-finding/navigation: there is no official trail, but a climber boot path, which could keep changing over year after the snow melts. Need to try more off-trail hikes to improve our skills.
  • First aid: have some knowledge of first aid. Could watch some videos for this if we don't have a chance to take a class.
For scramble, we could pick some mountains from 75 Scrambles in Washington: Classic Routes to the Summits Guide Book. For example, Red Mountain, Snoqualmie Mountain, and Kaleetan Peak along the I-90 corridor. A little further, we could climb HiBox Mountain, Chikamin Peak, Ruby Mountain, Three Fingers, Baring Mountain, Vesper Peak, Mount Pugh, Sloan Peak, and Mount Daniel. Mount Daniel is our middle term target. 

For snow walking, we could try some mountains with less avalanche risk during winter. To learn some mountaineer knowledge, we could watch the open seminars provided by SIERRA MOUNTAINEERING CLUB. 

 For trail/mountain information and GPS navigation, there are couple iPhone applications: alltrails, Trailblazer(wta), peakbagger, Cairn, N.America 3D (GPS), and Gaia GPS.

Gear list: hiking shoe/boot, ice axe, crampon, helmet, trekking pole, headlamp, (optional harness), camping equipment, and 10 essentials.

 Mount Stuart related information:
  • Map:   
Cascadian Couloir Route
  •  Mount Stuart Weather Forecast
http://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Mount-Stuart/forecasts/2869
  • WTA: 
http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mount-stuart
  • SummitPost:    
Mount Stuart
Cascadian Couloir

Mount Stuart - Cascadian Couloir (detailed description)

  • Peakbagger: 
http://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=2182
  • Mountaineers: 

Mount Stuart/Cascadian Couloir

  • Youtube: 
Mt Stuart Cascadian Couloir
Climbing Mt. Stuart Sep. 2012 - Cascadian Couloir
Climbing Mount Stuart (July 24-26 2012)
Mount Stuart: West Ridge, July 23-24, 2010
Mt. Stuart Mountain Goat Climb-Off

Virtual Mount Stuart climb

Mount Stuart GoPro Climb Video
Mt Stuart Drone Video
  • Blogs
    Mount Stuart via CasCadian Couloir (September 28, 2016)
    Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA: Mount Stuart via Cascadian Couloir
    Mount Stuart via Cascadian Couloir
    Jebs Journeys: Mount Stuart 7-27-2013
    Mount Stuart, Ulrich's Couloir
    MT. STUART, Stuart Glacier Couloir
    • Flickr photos:
    2016.08.13 Mount Stuart (Cascadian Couloir)
    • NWHikers (search the forum for more):
    trip report July 13, 2014  
    trip report July 08, 2014
    • CascadeClimbers (search for more):
    Mount Stuart - Cascadian Coulour 9/10/2016
    Mount Stuart - North Ridge Complete  8/2/2015
    Other Resources:
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