Mount Stuart - 8.19.2009 to 8.21.2009

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rodman's GPS route of our 3 day/2 night backpack trip and climb of Mt. Stuart... 13.7 miles roundtrip, gaining 8300 feet of elevation.
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rodman's GPS route from our camp (4825') up and down Mt. Stuart... 2.5 miles up, gaining 4700' of elevation... and 2.8 miles down and back to camp.
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Park at the end of the N. Fork Teanaway Road... and after hiking the Ingalls Way Trail for ~2 miles we took Trail #1229 to Longs Pass.
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Esmeralda Peaks from the Ingalls Way/Longs Pass trail junction.
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A pano shot from Longs Pass of Mt. Stuart and most of the Stuart Range... ~2.7 miles from the parking lot.
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A closeup of the Mt. Stuart summit area from Longs Pass.
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Esmeralda Peaks and Hawkins Mtn from Longs Pass.
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Longs Pass is in the center of the photo... taken just south of Point 6878... Bills Peak and Teanaway Peak in the distance.
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Ingalls Peak, Point 6878 and Jack Ridge... taken near Longs Pass.
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Looking across Ingalls Pass to Fortune Peak and the three summits of Ingalls Peak... taken near Longs Pass.
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Colin, rodman and larman starting down the north side of Longs Pass.
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Colin and larman in the 'S' curves on the north side of Longs Pass.
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Dropping down towards Ingalls Creek... and our general route to Mt. Stuart via the Cascadian Couloir.
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Our campsite (4825') for two nights near Ingalls Creek.
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At 6:45 a.m. we started hiking up the Cascadian Couloir.
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More of the Cascadian Couloir.
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rocman and Colin in the Cascadian Couloir.
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rodman, larman and rocman trudging up the Cascadian Couloir.
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Looking back across Longs Pass to Mt. Rainier.
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Still advancing in the Cascadian Couloir.
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Looking down the Cascadian Couloir.
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The Cascadian Couloir just keeps going and going.
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Almost near the top of the couloir.
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Part of the spine that runs south from Stuart's false summit.
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Things open up a bit after getting above the couloir... we see more of the spine that runs south from the false summit.
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In some large boulders at the top of the couloir... Longs Pass behind.
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Our general route to the Sherpa Peak viewpoint and on to just below the false summit.
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Colin coming up to the Sherpa Peak viewpoint (~8200').
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Sherpa Peak and its balanced rock from ~8200 feet.
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The general route we will use to get up to just below the false summit.
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Heading for the snow field below the false summit.
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We are heading for the left side of the snow field and will stay on the rocks.
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We are above Sherpa Peak in the foreground... Argonaut, Colchuck and Dragontail beyond.
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rodman makes the final move to reach the point (~9000') below the false summit where we will start the traverse across to the summit.
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rocman, larman and Colin start the traverse over towards the 'Snoopy' snow field and Stuart summit.
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rocman, larman and Colin getting closer to the 'Snoopy' snow field.
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Getting really close to the 'Snoopy' snow field.
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rocman and Colin are near the summit ridge to the right of the snow field... larman watches from below.
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rodman climbing.
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rodman climbing on the right side of the snow field... don't try this at home.
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larman is on the summit ridge... reaching it from the chimney on the right.
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rodman in the chimney that leads to the summit ridge.
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Colin on the summit slabs.
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larman and rocman near the Stuart summit... while ragman and Colin watch.
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Lake Ingalls and Ingalls Peak from the summit.
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Lake Stuart below... Axis Peak in the center... Cashmere Mtn beyond.
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Horseshoe Lake below... with Hi-Jack Peak and Eightmile Mtn beyond.
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Stuart's West Horn in the foreground... aligned with Scatter Peaks and Mt. Daniel.
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Axis Peak and Cashmere Mtn.
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Argonaut, Colchuck, Dragontail and others from the Stuart summit.
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Party on the Stuart summit (9415')... ragman, rodman, rocman, Colin and larman.
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rodman added a small notebook to the summit register box.
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Fortune Peak, Ingalls Peak and Lake Ingalls.
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rodman in the chimney on the way back to the false summit.
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larman watches Colin coming down the chimney.
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rocman scopes out the route to get back over to just below the false summit.
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Traversing back towards the false summit.
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Colin getting ready to step into the void???
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rodman finishing up the traverse over to the false summit.
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Back to the snow field below the false summit.
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Continuing down.
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Sherpa Peak as we continue down.
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At ~7800 feet we decided to take Beckey's 'Variation No. 1' route down... heading for the meadow 3000 feet below.
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Looking back up to the spine that runs south from the false summit.
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A pano shot of a lot of the Teanaway peaks as we come down the 'Variation No. 1' route.
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Part of the 'Variation No. 1' route... still have at least another 1000 feet of elevation loss to get back to our camp.
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After a good nights sleep larman and Colin near Longs Pass.
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rodman and rocman coming up to Longs Pass from the north side.
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Mt. Rainier and Esmeralda Peaks from Longs Pass.
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The Longs Pass guardian with Mt. Stuart behind... only 2.7 miles of downhill hiking to get back to the car.