[TR] Eldorado - West Arete (kind of) 7/7/2007

[dbconlin]

Trip: Eldorado - West Arete (kind of)

 

Date: 7/7/2007

 

Trip Report:

Scott Gullberg and I approached Eldorado via the standard (brutal) trail on Friday night and bivied on the Eldorado Glacier. Then, on Saturday, we climbed the West Arete (kind of). I say kind of, because the start kind of eluded us. Nelson says to go up the gully (snow in early season) to the ridge crest and climb mid-5th class up from there. We checked out several potential starts that sounded vaguely like what was described, but none of them were really compelling to us and we kept looking for the correct start by climbing up the snowfield on the left (north) side of the Arete. Eventually we realized we definitely weren't on the right track but since we didn't know exactly what among the options we had passed would be any better, decided to just start climbing up the face toward the ridge, and knowingly traverse onto the route from higher up. We ended up climbing some pretty sketchy 4th-class with lots of loose rocks, loose dirt, and moss.

 

After about 5 pitches we gained the ridge crest and, thus, the route, probably about halfway up. Some nice 5th class pitches lied directly above us and we gladly climbed these on sound rock with nice face and crack climbing. Two pitches later, we arrived at the summit of a minor gendarme separated from the continuing ridge line by a steep snowy col. We changed over to boots and crampons and simul-climbed across it to the rock on the far side. One more change into rock shoes and we simul-climbed the remaining 4th class rock via significantly more solid albeit blocky and ledgy terrain in two long pitches to the summit.

 

Right as we approached the summit, the clouds rolled in and what had been stellar weather all day was reduced to 50 foot visibility. Nonetheless, the summit of Eldo was pretty spectacular and the descent down the East Ridge went smooth and quick.

 

We spent another night at our camp and Sunday morning Scott ran up the East Ridge for another summit while I slept in. I was just too tired. Then we deproached in about half the time as the approach, although it was almost equally brutal (in my opinion).

 

Good Food, in Marblemount, was closed so we had to drive on in search of burgers. We ended up settling for 'breakfast only' a little further down the road, but I got my burger fix at Dicks in Seattle later. All in all a good route, but I recommend finding the correct start unless you enjoy the sketch. And the approach is a necessary evil, too. How 'bout some switchbacks...?

 

Pics:

 

 

Approach Notes:

Brutal, but straightforward. Bring trekking poles.

[JayB]

Cool.

 

I had my eye on that one but never managed to squeeze it in.

 

 

I miss the Cascades.

 

T - 363 days.....

[Billygoat]

Sweet pics thanks!

[goatboy]

Hmm...the rock (in the pix at least) looks not bad. I've heard the main reason to avoid this route is due to the rock quality.

 

Would you agree? Would you do it again (ever)???

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Nice work! This is a climb that kind of grew on me now that it has been a year since we climbed it. At first I only remembered the sketchy bits, but now those are gone from memory and I mostly remember the fun bits and the good adventure. Rock quality is actually very good in the section where those pictures are taken.

[scottgg]

Yeah, I would definitely do this route again, and recommend it to others as well. The decent rock, long route, and awesome position conspire to make this a must do route! The approach is not that bad, I think it took us about 3.5 hours to our bivy at 7400'.

Dave thought we should gain the route lower, but my stupidity won over and we ended up gaining the ridge crest at the notch just after the crux gendarmes But the following two 5.7 pitches were very cool, as was the 1000' of easy, fun, fourth class rock to the summit.

That whole area is so cool, I'd definitely recommend it and can't say enough good things about the sweet snow arête on Eldorado's classic East Ridge!!

[NYC007]

looks like fun senors

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Originally, I thought your last photo was taken at the crux, but now I see that the right hand wall isnt actually there.