I talked Joel into doing the NR of Stuart. This route goes 30 pitches at a grate of 5.9. A huge step up for both of us. Go big or go home right? The weather was looking iffiy before we even started. Gathered up as much info as we could and decided on what sized rack to take. So the plan was to drive up to Stuart/Ingalls Lake TH start hiking around 2 am get to the base of the route by daybrake. Climb to the bivi sight on route. Finish the route the next day and get home. Well that was the plan. The drive took much longer (we went via I-5), and we started hiking around 4 am. The hike in took a lot longer as well. So we were at the base of the route around 9 am. Joel elected to take the first pitch. He fired off the bottom just fine till he got to the 5.8 offwidth. He was having a hell of a time because his backpack was hitting the roof of the offwidth. After many tries we finally decided that he would leave hit backpack clipped to a piece and finish out. After ditching the pack the rest of the pitch went like clockwork. I climbed up to his pack and promptly left mine there as well, but took the extra rope. I got up to the belay set the line for a rap for Joel who volunteered to rap down and prussic up so we could retrieve the packs. He did a great job and soon I was off on the 5.9 layback finger crack. I started with my pack and quickly ditched it. The extra weight was making my feet slip and pulling the tenuas layback difficult. After loosing a few pounds things went "easier." Placing pro was hard. I climbed up to a small roof with a good stance and did not like many of the pieces I placed, so I took some time to place the next one. After about 5 minutes I had a piece in that I was REALLY happy with finally. I started up again and the climbing was more of the same, hard. I could take the time to place a piece and get real tired or I could just finish this thing off. Well I opted to finish it off. The exit to the belay was not an easy move and sure enough I peeled off. A good 30 ft later I came to a nice stop caught by my belayer. Nice work Joel :) I was shaken a bit, my right thumb had a good gash in it and my right ankle was a bit tweeked, so I was just fine. Not too bad for my first real trad fall. After a minute or two I got back to climbing and finished the pitch with a few more pieces this time. Joel got to the belay and we talked about our options. Personally I was done after the fall. But the weather and the time were our main concerns. We bailed. My ankle was getting worse as we hiked out but it leveled out after a point. We made it all the way to just below Ingalls pass before we decided we were too tired to go any further. Found a bivi spot and slept. Around 5 am (4 hrs sleep) it started to rain, and we packed up and booked it out to the car. Stuart was fully in the clowds and rain. Thank god we were not up there in that, talk about an epic!!
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