Mt. Stuart, WA

Mt. Stuart, Washington

July 15-16, 2024

Laura, myself and Hazel met Grandma and Bob in Ellensburg, Washington for a sandwich and early dinner before heading out to climb Mount Stuart. After lunch we buckled Hazel in with Grandma as they headed to Eight-mile Campground about two hours away. Laura and I went in the opposite direction and headed for the Lake Ingalls Trailhead that leads up and over Long Pass and down into the Ingalls Creek Basin where we could access our chosen route, the West Ridge 5.6. 

Justin at Long Pass examining our route on Mount Stuart

We arrived at the trailhead around 5 PM and were hiking quickly after. I even put an extra sandwich in my backpack for Laura and I to share for dinner. The hike up was hot, but not too hard for so much elevation gain because the of the good switchbacks.  When you get to the top of the pass, you get great views of Mount Stuart. It’s a beautiful, dynamic and complex mountain. With the view from Long Pass, Laura and I were able to easily pick out our route from afar. 

Our campsite above Ingalls Creek across from Mount Stuart

We hiked down to the basin, set up camp, ate our sandwich and slept for the night. The next morning, the alarm went off at 2 AM.  We quickly packed bags and hung the camping gear for pickup on our return.  We worked our way up Ingalls Creek to where it intersects the gully we needed to ascend to get up to the west ridge of Stuart. 

Justin working up the gully toward the west ridge

There were several snow patches that made things a little more interesting

We bushwhacked up, several hundred feet before reaching a scree gully that was about 2,000 feet of third and fourth class climbing. It was very enjoyable and the rock was awesome. The bad part was that we were totally swarmed by mosquitoes; they were driving us crazy.  We were literally running or otherwise moving as fast as we could up the steep terrain to try to stay one foot ahead of them. 

Justin navigating through the complex west ridge of Stuart

Laura hiking across a snow field before the technical upper pitches

After ascending the gully and getting on the ridge, we found the tunnel passage that gives relatively easy access to the remaining route. We traversed across the steep rock and many more gullies before reaching the upper portions of the climb where we roped up and simul-climbed several pitches to the summit.  

Justin leading across some exposed terrain

Laura coming up through the crux of the route

It took us six and a half hours to reach the summit and we stayed for another half hour enjoying the views and looking out and around.  

Laura on the summit of Mount Stuart

Justin checking out one of two different registers on the summit

A mama and baby mountain goats hung out with us on the summit for a while

We would descend the Cascadian Couloir, which is basically a massive scree gully.  We passed by the only other people that were on the mountain that day as they were headed up the Cascadian while we were headed down.  

Steep and exposed terrain on the way down as well

Back at the Creek, we soaked our feet in the water for a few minutes before grabbing our backpacking gear and making the hike back up and over Long Pass. Back at the parking lot, we were able to jump in the creek to refresh before the drive back to camp. We left the trailhead and even made it all the way to Eight-mile for dinner with Hazel, Grandma and Bob that evening. Mount Stuart is truly an impressive rocky pyramid and we thoroughly enjoyed the climb.

Laura and Justin on Long pass on our hike out from Mount Stuart

Interesting balanced rocks were everywhere.  I joked to Justin that we were in a house of cards.

These mountain goats hung out right on the summit with us for half an hour.  I thought they were going to follow us down too.

I always skim through the summit registers to see if I recognize any names and see what people wrote.  This one had a little tribute to 9-11.

The entire route was interesting and fun

Justin really enjoyed the more technical climbing near the summit

Justin looking for a possible route through the crazy balanced rocks and snowy gullies

We enjoyed the cooler temps up high because the mosquitoes weren't as bad up there

Snow or rock?  With no crampons, the rock seemed slightly easier.

We had a nice view of Mount Rainier to the south of us with Ingalls Lake on the right

We hung our camping gear in hopes that it wouldn't be chewed by animals while we were climbing