Trent Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Trip: Eldorado - NW Face Couloir Date: 11/5/2007 Trip Report: For those interested in the conditions, Scott and I climbed the NW Face Couloir on Eldorado on Monday. The recent warm rain followed by cool clear weather made the climbing conditions excellent. The steep approach on Sunday took us 5 ½ hours to our camp on the Inspiration Glacier. The next morning we started marching at 0715, traversing across the east face on a frozen crust and descending a gully at the col to the immediate north of the North Ridge. We down-climbed a bit, then did two 30M rappels to get us into the North Cirque (See Alpinist David for further enlightenment). The climbing in the couloir was steep snice punctuated by steps of WI3 ice. The rock was mostly rimed and verglassed over, so rock pro was pretty scarce. It reminded me of pictures that I have seen of Scottish winter climbing, except that we were not making any frozen turf sticks. The climbing was very enjoyable with good body weight sticks the whole way up. We topped out four hours after starting, and went camp to camp in 7 ½ hours. Easy travel on the glacier Rapping into the northern cirque The route Belaying Following An ice step Fun! Topping out Gear Notes: Brought a light alpine rack, four screws, and two pickets. Could’ve used less rock pro and more pickets. Approach Notes: Trail free of snow to 6000 feet. Snow conditions were good early in the day with easy travel on a frozen rain crust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurthicks Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Nice work, Monday was definately the day to get out this week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webnick2007 Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Sweet photos; great trip beta! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmaron Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Looks like fun. Thanks for the inspiration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 oh man, nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken4ord Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Nice job! Man I would love to get back and climb that route again, it is such a nice setting. Great to see it in different conditions to what we had too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCash Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Nice job. Good writeup and sweet photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Scurlock Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/88583140 - from late afternoon on the 1st. It's going to look a lot snowier soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Thanks for the pics! Great job! Makes work a little easier to endure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeroforhire Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 great pics and thanks for the inspiration! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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