Trip: Eldorado Peak - NW couloir attempt / NE face

Date: 10/26/2008

Trip Report:
Expecting Colfax to be quite the zoo in the weekend, we headed to Eldorado to check out the NW couloir. On Saturday, we started around 9:30 from the trailhead and reached our camp on the Inspiration Glacier ~5.5h later. It was pretty cold and windy up there.

On Sunday, we got a late start after spending some time defrosting our boots in the sleeping bags. Partly following another party's track (we had met them in the parking lot already the day before, and now we were hoping that they would near finishing the route by the time we got there), we went to the col which has been described in previous trip reports as a short-cut to the approach. Looking down the other side, we caught a glimpse of the lower part of the route: there was snow, but we didn't see any evidence of ice anywhere on that side of the mountain. And we could see that the other party had rappelled and decided against climbing the couloir - their track led away to the right, obviously just coming back up. Somehow that didn't help very much in making us more confident that the route would be in shape... And we didn't feel particularly inclined to go down only to find the route in bad conditions and end up doing a circumnavigation of Dorado needle. Therefore we decided to turn back and simply went up the NE face.

The NE face was a straightforward, not very steep climb on hard snow (after a little bit of wallowing at the base). We enjoyed the sun and the lack of wind on the summit for a while, then went down along the east ridge and back to camp. After packing up, we made it back to the car pretty quickly.

Some pictures:

Eldorado above the glacier:


Camp:


Inspiration Glacier:


The NW face of Eldorado:


Nice views from the summit:


Gear Notes:
Ice tools, crampons, glacier stuff. We brought gear for protecting the couloir, but didn't get to use it. For the NE face in these conditions, a single ice axe would be perfectly good enough.

So did you guys just eye this route from the Dorado-Eldorado col? Those guys give you info on the condition as they walked all the way to the base? Not bad weather for late October.

Errm. That's pretty much how I'd expect it to look. The couloir holds ice but it's quite deep. The face doesn't hold much, if any ice. Conditions look pretty similar to when I did the route a couple of years back. You can't see if the couloir is in unless you're standing below it.

Man, with the weather and that approach, you cannot go up there and NOT go to the base of the route. Its definitely in.

The main reason for us to turn back was the other guys' tracks. They had gone all the way down only to turn around and head back.

We met them again later, and they said that it looked like it might go, but they were worried about being too late, etc... Whatever, the climb may well be in shape, but unfortunately we didn't really check it out. So I can't tell.

At least you guys got another climb out of it. My understanding of this route is that it really doesn't take much to make it a go.

Im from the party that made it to the base of climb.

It was definetly in, but we were a little worried about having a four man team moving up it. I think our decision to turn around was more about the capability of our party rather than the route. In our defence, I will say that there was little visable ice and the snow wasnt super thick either.

she's a 'beaut when dusted with powder...thanks for the pics

I too was with Phil at the base - each member of our party had some reservation about continuing up the route for various reasons, even though the route looked to be in (and quite good) to me. Our reasons had to do with party ability, fitness, and size. In retrospect, it may have been smart to split into two teams of two - with only two climbing the route and the other two doing the long glacier tour/traverse that we all ended up doing. Four in that couloir is too many climbers.

Personally, I was having some reservations about doing much front-pointing and step-kicking given that I had forgotten my boot insoles and had quite a bit of slop going on in there...oops!

I would agree with what other have said. The route picture that you posted from the col short cut is what it looked like when we did it. Also the descent from the col that I Dave and I would be fun two pitch snow and rock climb up if the the conditions really were not favorable. Furthermore I would would not expect full water ice conditions on that route ever, it is more neve than anything else in most conditions. There is not much above to feed water to create a nice water ice climb.