| Steve Dougherty ~ Sep 6, 2006 |
| Ten climbers composed our cohesive fun loving group for a Labor Day Weekend climb of Mt. Stuart via the Cascadian Couloir route. Mt. Jefferson had been our original objective but had to be cancelled due to the Puzzle Fire burning in the Jefferson Wilderness Area. We departed the State Motor Pool Park and Ride at 4:30 a.m. picking up Keith and Linda enroute. Jeff Howell drove his Ford crewcab pickup and Scott drove his minivan. The ten of us fit well into the two vehicles. Rest breaks were taken in The Dalles and Ellensburg before arriving at the Esmeralda Basin Trailhead at 11:30 a.m. The sky was clear and hazy. The temperature was warm but not hot. The forecast was for clear and warm weather through the weekend and into next week. We topped Longs Pass in 90 minutes and took another hour to descend to our Ingalls Creek base camp. We chose a terrific, large campsite immediately north of where the Longs Pass trail crosses Ingalls Creek (4920 feet) and south of the Ingalls Creek trail. A spring was located on the east boundary of our camp and served as a convenient water source, eliminating the need for filtering water. After scouting the start location of our route on the western edge of the large clearing just 400 yards down trail from our camp we returned to setup our tents and nap in the shady forest with the voice of Ingalls Creek our constant companion. A group dinner of steak stir fry was enjoyed before Kris Richardson escorted her climb team into camp still relishing their day's conquest. Their summit of Mt. Stuart held special meaning for Kris as it was her 18th and final Chemeketan award peak. We discussed the route and the time it took their team to accomplish the various parts of the climb confirming much of what we already knew about the route. We were intrigued by the feature they referred to as the "keyhole" just beyond the false summit. Everyone had to take off packs in order to fit through the narrow passage. John Petrie claimed that he was almost too big to fit through. Dusk fell on our camp at 8 p.m. and we retreated to our tents for a restfull night in the calm forest. Scott Phillips roused us from our slumber at 4:30 a.m. As we heated water and consumed our morning oatmeal we learned that Jeff Howell was visited by a little furry forest creature during the night. A mouse had bumped into Jeff's face and woken him. When Jeff switched on his light the little furry creature was pinballing between the walls of the tent searching in vain to find an escape path. The mouse had chewed a small hole in the tent above the level of the tent floor to gain entry and now found himself a prisoner in the tent with Jeff. Jeff had to exit his tent and remove items from the tent since the mouse kept trying to hide under items left in the tent. We were moving down the trail with headlamps at 5:30 a.m. We got on the climber's trail and settled into the slow uphill grind. Route finding was uneventful; we just kept heading up. Some of us peaked over the edge to view the North side when we arrived at the saddle just short of the false summit. I filled my one used water bottle with snow at the only remaining snowfield on the route before navigating our large group through lengthy switchbacks through the steeper, loose rock terrain around the South side of the false summit. We followed a path marked with cairns down slightly and through the "keyhole" feature that Kris had told us about. This feature is not visible until you are right on top of it. We followed rock cairns accross the ridge to the true summit staying mainly on the south side of the ridge. We were on top at 11 a.m. and stayed for 45 minutes. We were fortunate to have Kevin and Andrew a father-son team (Andrew was only 10 and had done the Cascadian Couloir with his father a year ago) to take our summit photo. The most dangerous part of the climb was the loose rock on the east side of the false summit and we endeavored to stay out from underneath each other as we made our descent back to the couloir. Scott Phillips led down the couloir matching the slow but steady pace of the group. Our descent found us on a "cutoff" trail in the trees above our camp. At one point the group decided to bushwack our way downhill. Scott Phillip's intuition and Keith Hill's internal GPS were both confirmed by a GPS heading offered by Jeff Howell. We were back in camp in just a few minutes. After bathing and napping the group enjoyed Cheddar chicken pasta made by Robyn Smith. Meal time is a real social time and the group meals help reinforce this. A fire was built to burn our trash and then served as a focal point for conversation until we put it out and headed for bed at 9 p.m. an hour after dark. We were up at 6 a.m. after a three minute rain shower. Breakfast was eaten and camp broke by 8 a.m. Scott Phillips led us back over Longs Pass to the cars. After bathing in Esmeralda Creek and changing clothes we headed for the Kopper Kettle restaurant in Ellensburg for our post climb meal and distribution of summit certificates. Rest breaks were taken in the Dalles and Troutdale before arriving back at the Park and Ride at 7:30 p.m. Participants were Steve Dougherty (leader), Scott Phillips (assistant), Tim Smith, Robyn Smith, Amy Palacios, Jess Palacios, Jeff Howell, Josef Kralovek, Linda Bedard, and Keith Hill. |