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[TR] Eldorado Peak 02/11/2006


iain

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With the nice window of weather, we decided to head up north and plow our way up Cascade River Rd to check out the Eldorado area. We were able to drive to just before mile 19. We could have gone farther, but there comes a point where your diff is dragging deeply through the drifts and you start getting nervous about turning around. A short hike up to the gate led to a pretty casual log jam crossing and onto the canada-style approach trail.

 

Aggro skinning commenced:

skin.jpg

 

After an acceptable amount of skittering, things turned pretty:

jburg.jpg

 

The Eldorado Glacier was a cruise, but unfortunately it was also glop city. I could not lift my foot off the snow a few times, due to about 1ft of attached snow. Rarely do you worry about bindings releasing due to glop.

 

eldo_g.jpg

 

We ended up camping on the Inspiration, probably on a bergschrund smile.gif

 

forbidden2.jpg

 

The approach to Eldo is a cakewalk from here:

 

eldo1.jpg

 

Looking back at our ittybitty camp:

 

camp1.jpg

 

The classic Eldo shot from the summit:

 

eldo_top.jpg

 

 

We had been pretty spoiled the past few weeks with all the powder skiing, so there was a touch of grumbling about the windpack but really you can't complain when you are skiing here.

 

eldo2.jpg

 

eldo3.jpg

 

We were interested in ticking off some other stuff in the area since it is such a long drive for us. We dropped down towards Kalwatti to go ski the south couloir, but on the way over we were stuck on the Inspiration Glacier in a whiteout. We sat down and waited.

 

glacier.jpg

 

It didn't seem to be clearing anytime soon, and we wanted to be on Kalwatti earlier than later, so we bagged it and went back to camp in the soupy fog. Of course, it was completely clear all the way back down the forest to the road. The ski down through the trees is a bit gripping in places. Oh well, we'll be back for sure. snugtop.gif

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Hey there, it turned mostly cloudy in the evening and we were definitely staring at the sky and the bigger peaks around trying to figure out our future.

 

Eldo and others were in the clouds in the morning, but they cleared off briefly when we topped out. Then it socked in and was snowing when we were leaving the glacier. It looked threatening to the west, but it turned out to be a localized thing.

 

olyclimber has a killer guard cat at his fenced-in compound, beware.

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Eldorado's always fun; too bad you didn't get Klawatti, it's a kick. Whiteouts rock!

 

I really like the sitting on ?what? suspended between skis, looks like a great idea. Can you take it one step further and make a hammock with two pairs? Take a little rigging for skiing with your lady friend...

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I really like the sitting on ?what? suspended between skis, looks like a great idea. Can you take it one step further and make a hammock with two pairs? Take a little rigging for skiing with your lady friend...

 

Trick ski lounge with poles across bindings. Apparently in Europe you can actually buy hammocks designed for this. I was waiting for his dynafit toe tabs to rip off.

 

ilookeddown: post away, of course

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High clearance was definitely necessary. As for 4WD, I think it would be a good idea, but I was in 4wd when the snow started so couldn't say if it was completely necessary. It was mainly just plowing straight on, so once you got going it was not bad. However, you have to turn around at some point, and later in the day on the way out, the truck was sinking in a bit more. There is now a pretty good set of tracks in there to mp 19 at the moment.

 

Also, an extra bit of walking/gliding on the road doesn't really feel like much compared to the energy you expend once you leave the road.

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