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Eldorado NW couloir conditions??


kevin

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Finally tagged it! "SHE GO".

 

Paco (glutton for punishment a second time) and I went in Friday and climbed the route Sat and descended the same day. Snow above the treeline is rough going, especially in the afternoon, took us over two hours to get from the base of the meadows to the base of the E Ridge, I guess Colin and the other party, who bivvied in above the Eldorado basin, had better snow conditions early morning.

 

As Colin says the route in in good shape, not hard but fun. Paco and I followed Colin up having caught the other party of three on the glacier. I think there's slightly more neve than previously making the route faster, we only did three pitches and simul-climbed the rest (four hours from shrund to summit). We had originally planned to take it easy and descend Sunday (being slackers and assuming 7 hours for the route) but having summited early opted to head out the same day.

 

Fantastic views from Rainier to Baker/Shuksan and beyond. Bonus climb considering it's supposed to be pouring with rain/snow by now. Basically Paco and I had a great time, kudos to him for being willing to do that grunt of an approach again after he'd already done the route.

 

Ade

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Agreed, the approach is "easy"... a lot of elevation gain, but it's on nice soft trail or meadow or glacier. Except for the stupid talus field. Go for it.

 

But could anyone who was up there last wknd give a guestimate on snow depth (there was about 1-2 feet at 6000ft in Terror Basin last wknd, though it was patchy, so I assume something similar?). I was thinking about going into Boston Basin for some turns...

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There was 6"-1' of newish snow all the way from 5500'. So you leave the talus fields, which thankfully don't have any snow on them, and then cross the meadows and ridge to get into the next basin on snow pretty much all the way. Try and hit it as early as possible because it makes the going slow where you have to cross the rocks when the snow is soft... hip deep holes to fall in yadda yadda yadda.

 

The road was gated at the Eldorado lot.

 

The approach's apparant rep as one of the toughest in the Cascades is patently undeserved.

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There were ,believe it or not, 13 people this weekend wanting to do that route!!

Because of this website!!

There were 2 smart ones that did it in a day (Saturday), And 2 other smart ones who descided it was too crowded to bother!

It seemed the rest of the "Invasion " made it up the climb. bigdrink.gif

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There were ,believe it or not, 13 people this weekend wanting to do that route!!

Because of this website!!

There were 2 smart ones that did it in a day (Saturday), And 2 other smart ones who descided it was too crowded to bother!

 

Hey Wayne, sounds like you were up there. Were you one of the "smart ones"?

 

TR?

----------

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Wayne,

 

Too crowded, yes...

 

But was it really because of this web site? Or because conditions are about as good as they could be for this time of year, and the climb is in the Selected Climbs...what did you expect? From the description it sounds like the Black Ice Coulior of the Cascades. What alpine climber in their right mind would not have wanted to be out there on the 8th of December...

 

For that matter, perhaps you should get more specific with your acusation. Yeah, go ahead...just blame it on Colin. Hell he soloed the route and called it "easy"...if he can do it sans rope, we all should be able to right!

 

Shoulda been at Big 4 with TLG, Scot'terx and the rest of the crew, it was a swingin good time! bigdrink.gif

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Shoulda been at Big 4 with TLG, Scot'terx and the rest of the crew, it was a swingin good time!

 

scott, i thought that might have been you. but you don't get brownie points for not coming over to say hi!!! mad.gif btw, i've got somebody's fritos. they're pretty good with smokey black bean dip from trader joe's. smirk.gif

 

just talked to pms today. sounds like he, cavey, and fleblebleb had a super day on eldo. nice work guys! grin.gif

 

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Youre silly alex. it is a good route weather or not lots of people like to climb it. If there were that many people on the nr of stuart nobody would say a thing.

 

It's not like anyone thought it was a testpiece project from what I understood anyway. Considering how long it probably stays in and the new guidebook (which you never would have looked at the route most likely if it did not exist) as well as the thanksgiving holiday being the previous weekend i was counting on lots of people. Discrediting the route because you have not climbed it and tons of people have, or because you were to lazy to go up there and went to the rockies instead is gay. But hey that is your loss- fruit.gif I guess I am not going to climb the Weeping wall because it has seen thousands of ascents and has 10 people on it during a weekday *stupid-rolleyes*

 

everyone was friendly and some blood was left from Zee on the route.

 

Cheers to the fellow climbers bigdrink.gif

 

BTW kudos to Colin for the solo - pretty tough day trip I think. Also the 2 guys that came down the trail at 10 am from their day trip -hardcore- I think they soloed it too as well in micro time. Phukin A bigdrink.gif

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Cavey, I was on that team from Sibley and we made it out sun night. Granted it was a little dark by the time we did get out. By the way, that is a bad choice for an approch. I will never come in that way again. Way to much elvation gain and loss.

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