Mount Stuart/Cascadian Couloir

Trip Date: 9/26/2015

This was the In-A-Day version of this trip, which requires that all participants accurately self-assess their conditioning level and approach a long day's work with a positive mental attitude. My co-leader, Jeremy Elmore, and I car-camped at Beverly Creek CG the night before and the night after. We met the group in the Ingalls Lake/Longs Pass parking lot around 4:30 am and took off up the Longs Pass trail just after 5 am. Beautiful weather, sunshine, mild temperatures, a brisk wind here and there, golden larches ablaze. Headlamps needed until we dropped a ways below Longs Pass on our way to Ingalls Peak. Pumped ~3 liters/water per person at the creek crossing, then proceeded up the usual steep meadow trail to the loose rock and sand chute leading up to the Cascadian. A couple of minor routefinding issues (we rolled west out of the chute a little early, requiring us to recross the "false rib" low down to reach the lower Cascadian; absent the "landmark" of the usual semi-permanent snowfield, I tried twice to cross back over the false rib too low/too early below the false/east summit of Stuart, which resulted in some fun rock-scrambling before retreating).

We then crossed the false rib just below the final vertical section of the false summit in the usual place and took various routes to the true summit. Hung out for about half an hour, then descended as a party down the most direct route, which cleaves closely to the summit ridge before dropping slightly to meet the false rib crossing. No issues down-climbing the Cascadian, beyond the loose sand and rock exposed by the utter lack of snow. The party got a little strung out in the chute, but then hiked down the meadow to the Ingalls Creek trail in good order.

Most party members got their headlamps ready while taking a break for pumping a last liter or so of water at the creek crossing and admiring the rise of the "supermoon." Headlamps came into play (except for one party member, who had failed to extricate his lamp from deep in his pack) about the time we hit the steep switchbacks below Longs Pass. The final party member was cajoled into locating and activating his headlamp, and we proceeded in good order down the trail and back to the cars, where libations were served up by a forward-thinking party member. Reached the cars about 9 am.

So, a lovely but long day carrying only the weight of scramble packs, bracketed by the headlamp sections, sunrise and moonrise, all during larch season. Thanks to Jeremy and an able group of party members. One mountain goat spotted while descending the Cascadian. No injuries or incidents.