David von Oheimb's Photo Gallery:
Mount Stuart, central Cascade Range, WA, USA, 2 Aug 2007

I chose to climb Mt. Stuart because it's very close to Mt. Daniel which I climbed the day before, and because it's a famous prominent peak that promised to offer great views and good physical training. Doing it via the Cascadian Couloir route (also called the standard route or descent route, depending on your rock climbing ambitions) in late summer does not require gear nor climbing partners, but just good shape (1800m of elevation gain, including an elevation loss of 400m in the Ingalls Creek valley) and coordination, because the couloir is kind of cruel (pretty steep, much scree and sand).
I started hiking from the Esmeralda Basin Trailhead shortly before 6:30 AM and reached Longs Pass at 8:00 AM. While I was enjoying the scenery, two guys reached the pass. They introduced themselves as Caleb and Charlie, and since we immediately found each other quite congenial, we did the rest of the trip together. I slowed them down a little for the whole rest of the day, which turned out to be beneficial not only in order to have more rest to contemplate the ambiance, but also because Caleb had been slightly dehydrated for the last couple of days. Although each of us drunk more than five liters of water during the hike, he had circulation problems afterwards, which were due to dehydration. On the couloir we passed two further guys who apparently did not make it because at least one of them was a smoker. We reached the true summit at 12:50, where we stayed for 50 minutes and were joined by a couple who got there doing "real" climbing on the north face. On the way down I tried glissading on the upper snow field, but because it was very steep and the snow not soft enough, I very much felt the danger of rushing uncontrolled into the below rocks, so descended very slowly. Soon thereafter, we noticed a bushfire to the South, and later we learned it was due to a helicopter crash. We got back to the car park at 7:50 PM.

			Mount Adams	Mount Rainier
		Longs Pass	Charlie and Caleb	note the moon
	Longs Pass
	false summit		the upper snowfield	almost 45°
		from the false to the true summit		Mount Baker, Glacier Peak
		north face		made it!
		Stuart Glacier	Ingalls Lake; on the horizon: Chimney Rock and Mt Daniel	Mount Daniel
	exit of the North Ridge
	Ingalls Lake	upper snowfield	fire due to helicopter crash	smoke cloud
	the couloir	Mount Stuart at its best	true and false summits	Ingalls Creek valley
	Longs Pass	the crew	the smoke is spreading	back to Esmerelda Basin