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[TR] Eldorado Peak- NW Couloir 10/1/2004


Mark_Husbands

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Climb: Eldorado Peak-NW Couloir

 

Date of Climb: 10/1/2004

 

Trip Report:

Nick (Fromage) and I made it out to Eldorado Peak last weekend and climbed the NW Couloir. It was my first time to that neck of the woods. One of the most scenic areas I've been in the Cascades, or anywhere for that matter.

 

We took a Friday to hike in there to be in better shape for a long day of mountain travel on Saturday.

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Unusual?

 

Got some great views in the evening on the glacier of course.

 

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We bivvied right at the base of the East Ridge at a well-used, flat and comfortable site.

 

Next day we took a nice walk around the North side of the peak, past the Dorado Needle, and got a look at the gully.

 

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It looked white in there, no hint of water ice. And that's how it turned out, all firm snow, easy climbing, but no protection except for a bit of rock gear (we had lots of useless ice screws but no pickets).

 

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We would have been much better off with more small stuff. Alot of the small cracks were parallel, so it was sort of tough to get little wires in. Mostly you just wanted a little gear before the rock sections, whih weren't too steep but did have some loose stuff.

 

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Here's Nick on some pretty good rock. It soon got looser.

 

The "crux" was a few moves past a chockstone. I was able to get up high enough to get a good initial slot with my left tool, then get an armbar/shoulder wedge behind the chockstone.

 

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Another slot for the left and I found a deep hand jam behind the chock on the right. A bit of groveling and I was able to pull out my other tool and get an easy stick above the chock in stiff neve. I followed this with another styrofoam stick with my left tool. Golden. Then, as I dragged my right leg up through the offwidth, I felt my foot hang up on something. Looking down, I could see that skinny sling I had put on a piece under the chockstone had hung up on my curlycue Grivel toe bail. No kicking would free it, and I was too spread out and pinned to my tools to reach it with my hand. I started begging Nick to tie me off and come over and unhook my foot, since I was really only a few moves off the snow! Finally I cut my left foot free and kicked at my right. The sling came off the toe bail, but hooked up on the inside heel tab of the left foot(that tab that keeps the crampon from slifding back and forth). Dammit! Now I was really screwed, because i couldn't stand in the nice crack I had been using on my left. Again, I begged Nick for intervention. Reluctantly, he started to tie me off, but in a sudden burst of desperation I kicked the damn sling off and was free of my micro-epic. I might replace my curlycue bail with a more conventional one.

 

After that the angle of the couloir eased up even more. Nick led the final simul-pitch, and at alst found a tiny bit of ice to put a screw in.

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Soon we topped out on the awesome upper knife edge.

 

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After an easy descent of east ridge (several other gorups out there), we collected our gear and started out. The hike out was pretty brutal by my standards. Fortunately we made it down the last boulderfields before head lamps were necessary.

 

All in all, a great trip and cool route. With more ice, it must be a real classic alpine route. As it was it was still very, very fun, and very beautiful.

 

Gear Notes:

puny cams

knifeblades if you use that sort of thing

 

Approach Notes:

my legs hurt...

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Thanks Dave, but I missed the hummingbird reference. The only Hummingbird on the trip was my sleeping bag, and that isn't very old. No Camp axes...

 

Big props to Mark for keeping his poop in a group when his feet got tangled up. That was certainly a tense moment. Thankfully that snow above the mixed section provided for some very secure sticks. thumbs_up.gif

 

A couple more weeks and that route will be in primo form.

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Excellent! Finally a NW Couloir TR with a picture of what it looks like from a distance. At least the first TR I've seen with a picture of it. Now I know what to look for when I'm peakbagging somewhere NW of Eldorado.

 

I got a kick out of your use of 'pull out' and 'stiff' in the same sentence here:

A bit of groveling and I was able to pull out my other tool and get an easy stick above the chock in stiff neve. yellaf.gif

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Looking down, I could see that skinny sling I had put on a piece under the chockstone had hung up on my curlycue Grivel toe bail. No kicking would free it, and I was too spread out and pinned to my tools to reach it with my hand. I started begging Nick to tie me off and come over and unhook my foot, since I was really only a few moves off the snow! Finally I cut my left foot free and kicked at my right. The sling came off the toe bail, but hooked up on the inside heel tab of the left foot(that tab that keeps the crampon from slifding back and forth). Dammit! Now I was really screwed, because i couldn't stand in the nice crack I had been using on my left. Again, I begged Nick for intervention. Reluctantly, he started to tie me off, but in a sudden burst of desperation I kicked the damn sling off and was free of my micro-epic. I might replace my curlycue bail with a more conventional one.

 

yellaf.gifblush.gif

 

 

Nice work guys. Too bad there wasn't any ice. I'm surprised.

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just curious how long is the couloir (feet or meters) and how long did it take to climb it?

 

I estimate the couloir is 1200 feet. When Paco and I did it last year we did it in 7 full 60 meter pitches. We spent maybe 6 hours in the couloir. We had very icy conditions.

Edited by danielpatricksmith
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I think 1200 ft might be about right. we did 7 pitches with 50 meter ropes, the last being a long simul-pitch. only the pitch past the chockstone was short. it took us a bit over over 5 hrs, which seemed like a long time considering the easy snow conditions. but much of that time was spent tinkering with the wrong rock gear, building crappy belays. the little bits of rock climbing also took some time. plus our ice tools were no good, and i had a blister. nick was also getting over a cold. one of my boots was tighter than the other. these things equal about a 3 hour handicap, so in fact we climbed it in two hours.

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Dave- the Inspiration was somewhat broken up, but everything was well exposed. From our vantage point on the E Ridge we thought we could shoot a fairly direct line across it, but of course once we were halfway across we got boxed in and had to take some detours. There was a boot track that avoided the whole mess by staying high on the western edge and shot straight across the compression zone. That was less direct but would have been faster.

 

Those triangular chunks of rock, if I remember from my armchair geology degree (B.A.G., class of 1998), are pegmatite intrusions. I saw them the first time I climbed Eldo and remembered them- they make for a fun little sequence on the approach.

 

Another thing that contributed to our slowness in the couloir was my need to be constantly eating. cheeburga_ron.gif

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