The next week, Pete sent me this Scurlock pic as an idea for a local (to him) tour:
http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/57356990 [ Admin: any way to link to the pic so it comes up here? Also, tried to go attachment route as did in early posts, no luck. ]
So Saturday found us climbing Argonaut's NE couloir and N/NE face continuation. From the summit ridge we pondered our options. Wanting min rappeling and max vertical, we ended up rapping pretty much to the highest snow you can see on the S face; just to the left of middle. At any rate, once off rappel, we had 2 cruxes then carefree couloir skiing. Nice corny snow up high, got a little deep/heavy maybe 1K down, but still fine skiing. Over 2,500' run down towards Ingalls Cr before we decide to traverse over towards Porcupine Cr to climb back up to the ridge. We decided that the NE couloir was a bit too nasty for a pleasurable return, so opted for a loop that took in Colchuck Lake. Below are a few chronological pics from the day, 15 hours or so of motion.
Not sure I've seen the NE Face of Stuart quite so fat:
N side of Argonaut--the NE couloir is accessed up on the left:
A couple short raps were required to hit the snow:
Pete after the cruxes, which were steep sections through constrictions above:
Pete enjoying a long run:
Climbing the hot S side up to the Colchuck/Dragontail col:
And a downright groovy ski down to Colchuck Lake (which we could still ski across!):
We then adjourned to Pete's pimped bavarian crib (and nice couch) where a delicious meal, courtesy of his fine lady Kat, awaited us. Thanks for the idea and great day, Pete.
More pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/ewehrly/20 ... utColchuck#
