[TR] Eldorado Peak- Eldorado Glacer/East Ridge 7/17/2006

[alpinerack]

Climb: Eldorado Peak-Eldorado Glacer/East Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 7/17/2006

 

Trip Report:

It was an emotional battle trying to decide what to climb this mon-tue. So many options with such great weather sometimes I just don't know what to do. We struggled back and forth between the Adams Glacier on of course Mt. Adams or Eldorado Peak. All the recent trip reports made us lean towards Mt. Adams but in the end, the appeal of the North Cascades won us over. I know, what a contrast in route choices, but we just wanted to see that summit ridge!

We didn't get to the trail head till about 2:30 in the afternoon. Not quit what I wanted but my friend Travis had to drive up form Portland. We quickly found the log crossing and entered the approach form hell. I know there are worse in the North Cascades and many of you may see the Eldorado approach as easy, but for me and the pig on my back it was pure hell! I though it would take maybe four hours to reach high camp but 1840 vertical feet of steep root climbing, 1000 vertical feet of boulder hopping, another 1150 vertical up through the beautiful meadows, a 3rd class downclimb for 150 feet and the final 1800 vertical up the glacier, a total of 5520 vertical and 6 hours later we finally made it to high camp.

We stumbled into high camp excited to be in such a beautiful area.

Here is Forbidden Peak from camp.

I broke out my new stove (the snow peak giga power, only 3 ounces, boils water great but takes forever to melt snow) and started cooking up some dinner right before night fall. It was cold, real cold.

The cold night gave great cramponing snow up the remainder 1200 vertical we had to climb to reach the summit. It turns out that most of this route can be climbed on the rocky ridge if one wants, we brought the glacier travel gear so we stayed on the glacier and enjoyed a short weave through the crevasses. 45 min. after leaving camp we were traversing that amazing summit ridge.

 

 

Enjoyed the sun and the views for about a half hour and made it back to camp in 25 min. We broke down camp and prepared for the knee breaker descent back to the car. We saw a bear cub climbing a cliff along the talus field which was kind of wierd. Never seen a bear climb rock like that before, who knew! After finally reaching the car we realized that My car keys were missing. We were stuck up the cascade river road with no phone reception. Eventually a nice couple from Michigan were on their way out after a day hike up to Cascade Pass. They drove us to Marblemount and even gave us $20 bucks for phone calls. We spent the next few hours trying to find a way to get into my car. All the locksmiths were closed, some guy wanted to tow my car $500, I graciously declined his offer. Eventually we got hold of a good friend in Seattle who was bored so she called my wife to pick up my spare keys and picked us up in marblemount and then drove us to our car. Thank god for bored people!!! We finally made it back to Seattle at about 3 in the morning.

If anyone finds some Subaru keys at high camp or anywhere in between please pm me.

 

Gear Notes:

Had basic glacier gear. Could of done without.

 

Approach Notes:

Steep and long. Didn't hit snow until we dropped into Roush Creek Basin.

Edited July 23, 2006 by alpinerack

[lando]

Nice TR. Eldorado is one of my favorites. Just a thought, if you do it earlier, like, may or june, the boulder field is covered in snow, and it makes the approach quite a bit easier. Nice pics.