Mt. Stuart Mini Epic

Last week some friends and I decided o go climb Mt. Stuart. Stuart is in the North Cascades about 5 hours from Ashford, it is one of the largest pieces of granite in the world, it is 9,400 feet tall, and the North Ridge is one of the 50 classic climbs in North America. So I got down from a summit climb on Mt. Rainier, drove the 5 hours to the trailhead, slept for a few, then started the hike in to the base of the route. We planned on doing it in 2 days, with the first day consisting of the approach and about half of the rock climbing, then we were going to bivy on the rock and finish it the second day. But as it turns out our plans changed after climbing for about 5 hours because one of the guys ending being a fairly slow climber. My partner Kelly and I ended up waiting for a couple of hours for the second team to catch up and when they did we decided it was best for them to go down because the speed at which they were moving was just too slow for comfort and it would have been quite unsafe for them to continue. So we rappelled down the ridge, which is not an established rappel route, until about 1 in the morning. We then bivied at the base of the climb for a few hours, then got up to walk out. But the fun was not over, because when we woke one of my fellow guides Mike woke up with some crazy sickness. He was throwing up all night and could not hold down any food or water. So we had a 6 hour walk to the car through trees, boulders, streams and all other sorts of fun, and Mike could hardly stand up without falling over. So we half walked, half carried Mike out the entire way. Oh yea, did I mention that the mosquitoes in that area are the worst they have been in years because of the heat wave we have been having in the northwest. So it was hot, and I was getting destroyed by mosquitoes the whole way, we did not get to summit, and Mike ended up in the hospital, so all in all it was another successful mountain climbing adventure. Really though, the climbing was spectacular and I cannot wait to go back! Unfortunately I had time on that trip because I had to get back to work the next day to climb Rainier again. So needless to say, I was fairly tired on that trip, but I got everyone to the top and back down safely, so all is well.