We arrived at the trailhead on Sunday afternoon. Evelyn is all smiles. We spent the night in the van for an early morning start. The road was washed out further up so we had an extra mile and a half walk in and out.
- 01.JPG (3.38 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
We woke to the alarm at 3:30 am and ate breakfast. This is the moon not the sun.
- 02.JPG (2.82 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
The trailhead is at 4,150 feet and we climbed to Long's Pass at 6,200 feet. This picture was taken on the way out as the one in the early morning had no sun on it. I placed it here because this is the first close-up view Evelyn had of the mountain. It is daunting. The valley floor is at 4,700 feet and the summit is at 9,415 feet. That is 4,715 feet of local relief. Ulrich's Couloir is to the center and Evelyn chickened out on it so we attempted the Cascadian Couloir to the right of it. Not nearly as steep.
- 03.JPG (2.7 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
This is looking up at the couloir from the base.
- 04.JPG (3.91 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
Evelyn is still all smiles and eager to start the climb. At this point we have climbed up Long's Pass and have gained 2,150 feet and then decended down to 4,700 feet.
- 05.JPG (3.76 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
The flowers are all in full bloom.
- 06.JPG (3.34 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
We enter the couloir proper.
- 07.JPG (4.72 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
And up and up we go.
- 08.JPG (5.01 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
Evelyn doing a small pitch. Normally you don't use an ice ax on rock but we had them so employed them at times.
- 09.JPG (4.99 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
Above the ridge behind us allowing us to see in the distance. That is Mt. Rainier near the center.
- 10.JPG (4.88 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
A telephoto view of Mt. Rainier. This is as high as we went, elevation 7,200, still 2,215 feet short of the 9,415 summit. We ran out of time as our 2 pm turnaround time was on us and we had already gained 4,650 feet counting Long's Pass, and we still had to climb back over it to get out. It is tempting to keep climbing but it meant coming down with flashlights. Evelyn was not up to the task as this was her real first mountaineering adventure. Mt. Stuart is a real mountain and can bite you if you let it.
- 11.JPG (3.45 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
A not so happy Evelyn coming down. She was going really slow and was not mentally prepared. But this was just a shakedown climb and in my last post I said we didn't have a snowballs chance. The next full moon in August will find us back in the same place, except we will take three full days.
- 12.JPG (4.91 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
I walked across the log both in and out but Evelyn couldn't do it on her feet.
- 13.JPG (3.35 MiB) Viewed 1444 times
We got back to the van where we ate dinner and slept for a couple hours before the three hour drive back home. All in all we gained 6,150 feet going over the pass, up Stuart and then back over the pass and out.
