iain Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 Hal Burton, his associate Mr. Macchiato, and I went to climb the SW face of Early Morning Spire this weekend. We left the Eldorado trailhead on Cascade River Road late that afternoon. This trail climbs steeply, enters some granite boulder fields, and finally opens up into typical alpine heather and granite slabs. We missed the easy drop over the ridge at the top and wound up in a steep gulley, where we rapped off a tattered old chunk of webbing. Since we were using one of our thin 1/2 ropes through webbing, of course the rope got stuck for a bit and an epic pulling contest ensued. Magically, the rope suddenly fed through very smoothly, much to our delight. We felt rather sheepish when we got to the base of Eldorado Glacier where an obvious, well-beaten path led to a nice walk down from the ridge. The sun was setting at this point, so we hustled across the granite slabs below the glacier and cut up to the Triad/Eldorado col. We encountered some fairly straightforward climbing up to this col, but falling would be quite serious. I believe we may have forced a line up here in the dark and there is much easier way to the left somewhere, but we were in a hurry to get close to the climb w/o having to do the glacier navigation Tikkafest game on the other side. We ended up bivying on a ledge above a cliff, in the middle of the Triad glacier. We started off around 5am, easily traveling down and around Marble Creek Cirque and up the snow gulley to the climb. There was no moat to deal with, and accessing the spire was easy. The entire climb is dry at this time, and I think this is a better time to climb the route than later in the year, as Nelson's book suggests. The climbing itself was quite straightforward, though there was some confusion about where we were exactly at times. We encountered a few brief moves in a chimney that were in the 5.9 range. We simul-climbed the 5.5 pitches and traverse to the ridge, belaying the 5.7ish? crack to the ridgeline. We simuled the rest of the ridge to the summit. On the descent we found easy access to the snow on the north side of the col between Dorado Needle and the spire. We had to jump across a bergschrund, but not too difficult. Downclimbing the col on the south side was a wet boulder and scree affair that turned to loose cobbles in mud. We descended a glacier with some small icefall areas and climbed over a pass between Eldorado and Dorado Needle to the McAllister Glacier. Easy travel from here to the ridge to Inspiration Glacier, and a full-on race to get back to the bottom of Eldorado Glacier before nightfall. We descended the heather fields and granite talus in the dark, and capped the day with a extreme headlamp descent of the steep trail to the Cascade River. We were back at the car by midnight. A great weekend climb, but start earlier than we did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 how come they let oregon peoples climb good rock in washington? i thought oregon folks were limited to choss only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iain Posted July 29, 2003 Author Share Posted July 29, 2003 We slipped past the bouncer at the base of the climb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b-rock Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne Posted August 18, 2003 Share Posted August 18, 2003 Had fun on it myself last weekend and got an even later start from the bivy at the base of east ridge Eldo. The fog wouldnt lift till 6 am am we were nervous about getting out vey late that eve. i was very happy to discover a short cut on the descent route.after you get down to the first notch, you head N.E. to the next notch up and left .you can go straitght to the mcallister glacier and not have to drop way down the base of Dorado at all. 1 rappel involved to reach glacier. I figured it saved an hour+. and 1000' of Elevation re-gain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iain Posted August 19, 2003 Author Share Posted August 19, 2003 Nice! We desperately wanted to do something similar when we were at that notch, but we left a bunch of stuff down low to drop some weight. So we had to drop way down there to get it, as we were not aware we would have the option of that shortcut Oh well, a fun climb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 Good job, guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne Posted August 19, 2003 Share Posted August 19, 2003 I am convinced there is a shortcut to the base of the route as well. May take a recon day or not but the approach and " Descent" is epic-long. Lane the direct chimney finish was done on the 1st ascent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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