Trip: Eldorado - East Ridge
Date: 7/2/2012
Trip Report:
The weekend weather has not be cooperating, so I rounded up some beginners for a run up Eldorado C2C with a narrow weather window on Monday.
Morning mists soon yielded blue skies and great slogging up the upper basin slopes and the Eldorado glacier. Judas Priest and Hendrix made the going much more enjoyable.
At the rock island at the nose of the ridge, however, we noticed clouds and weather coming in. We tried to beat them to the top in time for summit views, but one party member got bad leg cramps. He had to sit out the final 700 feet while the rest of us postholed up soft snow with a breakable crust 8 inches down. We then enjoyed the current spicy conditions on the arĂȘte finish: just below the top, there is a half broken cornice that you must climb below and around to finish. With the soft snow it was a bit tricky to avoid blowing out sideways.
Cascade Pass in the morning:
J-berg looms above the mists:
Eldo:
Torment, Boston, Sahale:
Our views before the weather closed them:
Summit views!!!