Elain and Aaron, at camp
Elain and I had been talking about trying to climb Mount Stuart via the Ice Cliff Glacier route for some time. However, ever since our previous attempt on Mount Stuart when we saw a huge avalanche sweep down the Ice Cliff Glacier, we had been a bit apprehensive about the route. Aaron Zabriskie contacted us and indicated he was also interested in the route. The forecast did not look promising for the weekend, so we figured the best bet was to try something east of the Cascade crest. The decision was made, we would hike in to the north side of Stuart, and see if the weather gods would smile on us.
We met at 7 AM at the Burke Museum, and by 10:30 we were walking down the Stuart Lake trail. Early in the hike, I realized I had switched boots from plastics to leathers, but neglected to resize my crampons. This resizing procedure normally requires a bolt and a wrench (which is normally not a problem because it is done at home). I stopped to see if the crampons could be field-resized, figuring there was no sense in hiking all the way to Mount Stuart if my crampons weren't going to work. Skillful application of my ice hammer allowed me to resize the crampons without the bolt, and we were on our way. We overshot the turn-off for Mountaineer Creek, and ended up at a log crossing that was different than the one we used the previous year. The new log crossing was steeper and also fairly high off the water. I elected to "shimmy" up the log, cowboy-style. This was awkward because the log was at a fairly steep angle, and I was wearing my pack. With a bit of cursing and sweating, I reached the far side of the creek. Aaron soon followed, but Elain went off downstream in search of a better way across the creek. After her own battle with devil's club and slide alder, she joined us on the far side of the creek. After realizing that we were a bit too high on the hillside, we descended easy slabs and heather until we reached the obvious bootpack trail in the forest. We reached a nice flat spot amid boulders just below the Ice Cliff Glacier moraine at about 3:30 PM. There, we decided to make camp. The weather was looking pretty decent at this point, partly cloudy but not windy. The sun was doing its best to boil through the clouds. We studied the route and discussed strategy for a summit attempt the following morning.
During the night, the weather took a turn for the worse. A constant rain drizzle was interrupted by periodic showers. Dark clouds moved in over Colchuck and Argonaut. Fog enshrouded Mount Stuart above 7000'. The temperature was about 38 degrees at the coldest part of the night. A couple of times we heard the rumble of avalanches, probably from the slabs above the Ice Cliff Glacier. By early morning, it was snowing hard. Given the significant rainfall, we figured the snow-covered slabs above the Ice Cliff were in prime condition to avalanche; in addition, we figured the couloir at the top of the route was probably filled with new snow. We called off the climb. During the morning we packed up in the freezing rain, and admired the fresh coating of snow on the north side of Stuart. The hike out took about 4 hours, and we were back at the car by 10:30 AM. As a final poke in the eye, the weather was warm and partly sunny over Leavenworth.
Elain and Aaron, at camp
The Ice Cliff Glacier
Packing up camp, in a snowstorm