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Originally posted by bartruff1
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I will look for that book, thanks!
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Yeah, the weather just won't cooperate. It sucks. We probably won't get too high on Stuart before turning around. Oh well. Mountain forecast has snow level at 7,000 feet, so hopefully that is true.
I will look for that book, thanks!Bring back the OCC -
Yesterday I revisited an old favorite. It's not an official trail, climbers' approach to several peaks. Decent path for a while, then deposits you on a river bed and you're on your own. Steep, some lose rocks, brushy in places, fairly high volume of water. A number of opportunities to get yourself in trouble. Not a beginning level endeavor. But for experienced off trail travelers it's an interesting journey and eventually leads you to an upper basin that is beautiful and sublime. While I was slowly eating lunch I was being serenaded by a hermit thrush and a varied thrush while watching a pair of pikas nearby nibbling on grass and moss. Day started out cloudy but cleared up to reveal the peak I was at the base of, one of my favorites.Comment
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On Friday, I met my cousin at the trail head and headed up to Longs Pass. The hike was pretty easy up to the pass though there was snow in many places along the trail. The sun was out and the weather was nice. We got to Longs Pass and took some time figuring out the best route down. There were no visible footsteps in the snow, but we finally came up with best route. We climbed down a rock and stepped onto the snow. It was steep and I was a little freaked out. I have a lot of practice going up in the snow, but not much walking down. I have generally glissaded down steep slopes, but without knowing what was below us we decided to hike down. The snow was soft and soon I felt comfortable and was going down fairly quickly. We had trouble finding the trail when we got down to the bottom because the forest below was covered with snow. We had a general idea of where to go because we had spotted the Cascadian Coulier from Longs Pass. We made our way through the forest all the way down the valley floor. We got to the creek and saw a log crossing it. There was supposed to be a log crossing the creek so we thought we had found the trail. We crossed the log which was a little scary. After going through some brush we found the Ingalls Creek Trail and headed east. We came to a fork and saw a sign that pointed in the direction of Longs Pass. We did not find the trail and we went over the wrong log. A little further down we came to the Cascadian Coulier trail head and set up camp nearby in established campgrounds. It started raining shortly after.
The next morning it was still raining so we stayed in our tents a little later than we planned. The rain stopped, we got ready, and headed up the mountain around 7:30. We had planned on hiking all the way out, but with the "late" start figured we would be there another night. The hike was hard and steep. It alternated between snow and wind and then bright sun. At around 7,000 feet we encountered a snowfield that we climbed up. It was tough but not too bad. The snow was soft enough for our crampons to dig in. Then we climbed up more rocks until we encountered another snowfield that goes to the top of the false summit. This slope was steep. The snow had an inch or two of soft snow on top and then rock hard snow underneath. It was difficult to get crampons or axe to dig into the snow. There were two people above us and one of them was struggling and falling a lot. My cousin got a head start and was about 200 feet above me when he turned around and said it was really hard. I was at 8,600 feet. This was about 1. I told him I was ok if we turned around. I had also noticed some dark clouds coming our direction from the West. As he attempted to come down he lost his footing and decided to glissade to me. Hiking down that snow was difficult. I ended up going down backward. As we were going down we noticed the two hikers ahead of us coming down the rocks on the ridge which looked like some very difficult climbing. I talked to one of them (the one that wasn't falling) the next morning and he said his friend stopped and waited at the rocks while he submitted. He agreed that it was very difficult going up having trouble driving his crampons or axe into the snow and that they climbed down the rocks because they were worried about coming down through the snow. About 20 minutes after we started heading down the nasty clouds reached us and the wind started howling. It was snowing or hailing. I was very happy we were heading down. We got to camp around 4:30 and it was raining pretty good. We got some water, got our packs covered, and decided to call it a night around 5:30.
It was cold enough overnight that there was snow in places on the ground when we woke up. It was still snowing as we packed up at 6 AM. Climbing up to Longs Pass was a lot different then climbing down. The snow was rock hard and very difficult to dig in crampons. I spent a lot of time digging in my steps to get up. It was still snowing and the wind was blowing really hard. It was nerve racking going up. When I finally got to Longs Pass the wind was really strong and I had to put on my down jacket and mittens over my gloves. From there it was an "easy" hike downhill back to the car.
All in all, it was a good, fun trip. I'm disappointed I didn't make it to the top of Stuart, but I think we made the right decision to turn around.
This is me coming back down after we called it quits.
This is how high my cousin made it before he turned around
This is the climb up to Longs Pass this morning.
Mt Stuart from Longs Pass
Bring back the OCCComment
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Sounds like some nasty conditions on Stuart. I've heard the term bulletproof used for snow that's too hard for ice axe or crampons to bite into. You got some experience and nobody got hurt, that's a success. Plunge stepping going downhill on snow is great, a very useful skill to develop. And face in down climbing is necessary sometimes too. Steep snow can be kinda freaky but parts of the Cascadian Coulouir is loose rotten crap once it melts out. Sounds like you had a positive attitude and still enjoyed yourself despite less than ideal conditions. Man that last photo looks the south face is almost completely melted out already but obviously there is still some snow up there.Comment
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Man you got screwed on the weather. Two days later and you would've been golden. I was over by Leavenworth Monday and Tuesday and it was gorgeous. Today I went up to Stuart Lake, near the foot of the north face of Stuart. I imagine some of that bulletproof snow has softened up after a couple days w/ some sunshine and warmer temps.Comment
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Seems like everyone that hikes to Stuart takes the same picture....at the big rock...
Without getting to deep in the weeds the Eightmile Road is insult to the land and has led to the erosion of one of the most valuable and unique places in the Northwest...
Under the law the Forest Service was require to allow it's construction and share in the cost. In the 70's I lobbied to gate it at the Icicle bridge with the objective of reducing use in the Wilderness...… I lost that argument to the theory that a permit system could control use....it didn't.
In the 90's two of the bridges needed to be replaced and the Enchantments were getting beaten to death mostly by day use and the loony trail runners that would run through from Eightmile to the Snow Lakes Trailhead..... so I gave it another try..... and suggested moving the trail head down to the Eightmile Lake Trailhead...... and reduce some of that day use ….and save a couple hundred thousand dollars in construction and maintenance..... I lost that argument also ......and things have only gotten worse.....Coldchuck is a disaster….
The Forest Service has a bias against change...against rocking the boat...Comment
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Well Bart, I'm part of the problem. I've been up to Colchuck Lake a whole bunch of times, usually on the way up to Aasgard but sometimes just to the lake. Did a 1 day thru hike of the 'Chants once, usually in and out via Aasgard. I love it up there. So do a bunch of other people. The trailhead was packed yesterday. You would've thought it was a weekend day, not Tuesday. I'm not really a fan of taking away access. The Suiattle River Rd. was impassable for about a decade. One environmental group fought a legal battle they ultimately lost to keep it that way. I'm thrilled we finally can drive again to the Green Mtn. and Suiattle River trailheads. Adding a 10 mile road walk or bike to the beginning of a trip usually nixes it for me. Plenty of other places I can go and skip the 10 miles of boring trudgery. But there are other places that have been hammered by flooding or other issues we will probably never get repaired--Whitechuck River and Goat Flats/3 Fingers are two that jump immediately to mind. I don't mind walking. I did a 30 mile day once just to prove to myself that I could, and I've done some backpacking trips in the 50-60 mile range. But I like walking on trails, not roads. So moving parking areas further away to try to cut down the number of people visiting doesn't sit well with me. Anyway with more people moving to Washington daily and hiking increasing in popularity, if you take away one place the crowd is just going to shift to another trail and you've actually accomplished nothing. So there!Comment
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Hopefully the budget cuts will continue to reduce road and trail maintenance....maybe there will be a trade war that will hit Seattle hard and they will continue to increase business taxes and people will move out instead of in...so there...Comment
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Nah, businesses revolted against the socialist Seattle City Council and they backed down on their head tax that was allegedly going to "fix" the homeless problem. Oops, drifting into politics. But I think you'll get your wish on budget cuts and reduction in road and trail maintenance, we've been trending that way for a while now and doesn't look like it's going to change. Hey if the people in power in Seattle had their way nobody would own a car and nobody would be able to get to any of the trailheads, that would certainly take care of overuse of trails.Comment
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They can take a electric bus to Tiger Mountain or Mt Si.....I was kidding, but it is true that managers can increase or decrease use by improving or limiting access ……it is more of a science than a art.....there are examples all around the Wilderness Areas.....and National Parks....from the Sawtooth to Hurricane Ridge...don't get me started on the North Cascades Highway !!!!Comment
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June 21st is International Hike Naked Day........but I understand the 9th Circuit has issued a stay to (hopefully) prevent people over 35 or otherwise unsightly from participating...... except where there is absolutely no chance of them being seen... .......No Bueno....Comment
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I've been known to skinny dip when I'm fairly certain there aren't other people around, but hiking au naturel doesn't really sound appealing. I don't think I'll be participating on the 21st.Comment
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