The ridge was a wonderful place to be. We were out of the danger zone and the climb looked fairly straightforward. The weather was perfect and there were no other people. What more could you ask for?

Ok, so we were a little behind. It must have been 10am before we actually started the climb. We didn't have much water left and the boots and clothing in our packs weighed us down. So this is what they meant by "real" climbing.

We split up into two groups. Troy and Tygh on one rope followed by Charlie and myself on the other. Normally I would dread the thought of having to share a route with another group but with a brother and close friend, I didn't mind. We actually worked quite well together and if anything, it might have saved us some time.

The climbing was well within our limits. Our greatest difficulty may have been trying not to stumble while enjoying the views. I managed to take plenty of photos from the safety of belays.

Routefinding was easy. We simply followed the ridge. The rock was solid and protection was good. We ran it out on the lower pitches because we faced quite a bit of rope drag. The climbing was mostly low 5^th class. One of the more impressive pitches involved a slab with a deep handcrack. The slab could be easily frictioned but I couldn't help myself from squeezing a few jams. I wished that it was steeper.

The knife edge ridge provided plenty of excitement. There were usually good footholds but the exposure was frightening. We passed a few good bivies that made me want to stay over. However, we couldn't find any water and my pack was heavy enough as it was.

When we got to the gendarme the sun had turned to shade. We continued up the 5.9 handcrack opposed to the standard rappel. Troy and Tygh left their protection and I used a layback technique that made it feel more like 5.7. Charlie was the last to go. He was pretty chilled after having spent almost an hour at the shady belay.

There was a nice ledge on top of the gendarme where Troy and I had two belays going. I took a photo of Tygh as he pounded the 5.9 offwidth. I may be mistaken in my terms but it felt like more of a wide handcrack to me. This was definitely the most difficult pitch for all of us. Our packs were too heavy or else we were way burned out by the time we got there. I ended up stuffing most of my appendages but I still felt insecure. The exposure was just plain scary. Anyone who has climbed this pitch knows what I am talking about. For those of you who haven't, imagine climbing out the window of a 1500ft skyscraper 2/3^rds up.

The climbing eased to 5.8 after the offwidth. A few more pitches of low 5^th led to the top. We simul climbed a fair amount because it was getting late and we were getting tired. I think we summited around 4pm. We ate some food and drank some water to celebrate. This was the first time that any of us had summited Stuart. We put on our boots and packed our gear for the descent. None of us knew the way.

The descent was long an arduous. We ended up following Variation #1 rather than the preferred Cascadian Couloir. This resulted in some painful bushwacking. The hike back up to Longs Pass was slow. Charlie's boots were bothering him and we all felt pretty beat up in general. We made it back to camp around 7pm and suffered our way down the final few miles to the car.

We stopped at a Subway in Ellensburg on the way home. This helped revive us but it was only temporary. A good nights sleep provided the final cure. I was back in the gym the next day. We explained our ordeal to the locals and they congratulated with a few of theirs. It seems that we got of easy.

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