Mt Stuart Winter Ascent

Mount Stuart (9,415ft) Winter Ascent via Cascadian Couloir

Jan 29, 2022, 4:15am – 5pm

Eric, Ryan and Westy

20 miles snowmobiling, 11 miles skiing, 8,000ft gain

Stable weather lined up with stable snow conditions Saturday and we were all excited to go for Mt Stuart. Mt Stuart has a classic south face ski route, the cascadian couloir, that is often skied in the spring when the sun softens the snow to fun corn. Interestingly, it appeared this weekend in January we would find spring-like conditions on Mt Stuart. Previous warm temperatures followed by many days of colder stable weather had firmed up the snow pack enough that it would be icy and hard at night. But we predicted the steep south face would soften up to fun corn in the sunny afternoon, while still staying stable.

The standard south face route starts at Esmeralda trailhead, and I had scrambled this route already twice before in the summer (once descending from a climb of the west ridge of stuart, and once as a quick half-day scramble up and down the cascadian couloir). In the winter, though, the road is snowed over and can only be driven as far as the 29 Pines campground on the North Fork Teanaway River Road. This adds an extra 10 miles to the approach, but that’s no problem with a snowmobile.

We planned to do the climb as a day trip with my snowmobile in a group of three. I’ve done a handful of trips with two passengers on the snowmobile and it actually works pretty well.

I just have one passenger sit behind me and tow the other like a water skier. The person getting towed makes a belt out of a bike tube then makes a 3-to-1 z-pully system with the rope and beaners. The bike tube adds some cushion in case the snowmobile jerks forward too fast, and the z-pully makes it easier for the rider to hold on and adjust tension.

The main difficulty I’ve found is going smoothely enough so the person getting towed can stay on. I’ve found maintaining a constant 20mph speed works pretty well. Unfortunately this means I can’t hit all the rpm bands to clear engine clogs, but I just take occasional breaks to rev the engine and make sure to rev it when we reach our destination.

We all met up at the 29 Pines Campground plowed area Friday night and by 4:15am Saturday morning we were loaded up. Ryan took a turn first getting towed with me and Westy on the sled. I maintained a constant speed and Ryan used his expert waterskiing skills to stay on the whole time. The road was groomed for the first five miles to Beverly Creek campground, and then was ungroomed. Luckily other snowmobilers had broken trail before the weekend, though the ride still had plenty of whoomphs. I brought my chainsaw and ax along just in case, with memories fresh in my mind of spending hours sawing out trees last weekend on cascade river road en route to Forbidden Peak. Luckily, though, there were no blowdowns this time and we made it to the Esmeralda trailhead 30 minutes later.

I untied the tow rope and spent a few minutes going around revving the engine, then parked and unloaded. By 5am we were suited up and started skinning. We followed snowmobile tracks up the trail, but then diverged into the trees. I suppose I could have ridden the snowmobile up a bit farther (it’s legally allowed outside of wilderness), but I’m following a self-imposed rule that I only take motorized transport as far as the trailhead for winter bulger ascents. Past the trailhead everything must be human-powered.

The snow was icy but we encountered some thin patches of powder up higher. We took turns leading, and put ski crampons on as we got higher and the terrain got steeper and icier. Interestingly we came across snow bike tracks that went straight up the steep slopes. Snow bikes are probably even more capable than snowmobiles on steep slopes.

After an hour we topped out at Longs Pass and got a view of Stuart in the faint alpenglow. It looked very rocky and melted

out, probably from the lack of precipitation over the past week. The horizon was getting very colorful looking down Ingalls Creek to the east. We were a bit concerned about steep icy conditions on the north side of the pass, so we found a gap in the cornices and downclimbed in crampons. After 5 minutes, though, we found a deep patch of powder and transitioned to skis.

It was a fun ski descent from there, hitting pockets of powder up high on the north face, then icy firm crust with an inch of powder on top. We soon dropped down to Ingalls Creek and took skis off. I’d been here in early May with Matthew and remembered a raging river with deep snow walls on the side. The only way across then was to find a log to scoot across. But luckily now deep in winter the flow was just an ankle-deep trickle, and the snow walls on the side were not too bad. I walked across in my boots while Ryan and Westy balanced across a log nearby.

We skied a bit farther downstream on the other side on the firm icy snow, then stopped for a break at the base of the Cascadian Couloir. In the summer there’s a climbers trail through the slide alder at the base but that’s invisible in the winter and travel is actually pretty easy. We skinned up the icy slopes, passing a bit of surface hoar down low. When it steepened we changed to crampons and strapped the skis to our backs. It got pretty steep in places and I really hoped the sun would soften up the crust for the descent.

By 7,600ft where the terrain leveled we took a break, then made the final steep push up to just below the false summit at 9,000ft. Beyond that point the route looked very rocky and icy, and we decided to ditch the skis. It would have been fun to ski from the summit, but not really safe in those conditions with the steep icy Ulrich’s couloir dropping below the traverse.

The wind picked up as we rounded the ridge at 9,000ft and I took the lead kicking steps across the snow. The rocks were melted out enough we saw the occasional cairn, and I vaguely recalled the route from my previous trips there. At times we did steep traverses frontpointing in moving sideways, and I was happy to have two tools (an ice ax and a whippet). We traversed to directly below the summit, then kicked steps steeply up the snice. By noon we topped out, and we able to peer just over the north ridge. The summit was snow covered but surprisingly uncorniced.

To the south Adams and Rainier were just starting to get their own clouds caps, and I bet it was windy there too. We had great views of Sherpa and the enchantments zone to the east and Ingalls Peak to the west. After about 10 minutes we got cold in all the wind at started the retreat. We carefully downclimbed our ascent route and traversed back to our our skis.

Unfortunately some high clouds had built and were preventing the full warming effect of the sun. The slopes below our skis were still firm and icy and steep enough that we decided to crampon down. It’s always a tough call to carry skis downhill, but seemed like the safe call in this case. We booted down to 8,800ft, and then the slope angle eased the the iciness decreased a bit. So we strapped on skis and started down.

Ryan and Westy led the way with me taking up the rear. They are much better skiers than I am, so I proceeded slowly, mostly side slipping with whippet ready but making a few jump turns. By around 7,200ft the snow softened enough that we could carve fun turns. I would say by then we were harvesting corn. I learned on this trip it is actually possible to harvest any kind of snow (powder, snice, ice, corn), as long as you are having fun.

The bottom of the couloir came much too soon, and we transitioned back to skins in the powder at the base. We skinned up a bit, crossed Ingalls Creek, then continued following our tracks towards Longs Pass. We had to boot up the last bit to the pass, and caught great views of the setting sun. We skied down the still icy southwest face and reach the snowmobile by 4pm. A group of snowmobilers had just come back down to the road and they were impressed we’d gone all the way to Mt Stuart. I was amazed they said they were able to snowmobile all the way to the summit of point 7382 south of Ingalls Peak.

It was Westy’s turn to get towed on the way out, and by 4:15pm we were cruising down the road. I tried to maintain a steady 20mph speed and Westy was able to stay on the whole time. We made it back just before dark, which is kind of unprecedented for my trips. I tend to only snowmobile at night (before sunrise getting to the trailhead early or after sunset getting back late), and it was a treat to be riding in the daylight.

I did a few rounds revving the engine near the sno park to hit all the rpm bands, then got loaded up and headed home.

Video of trip:

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