[TR] Eldorado peak east ridge 8/12/2012

[alpine et]

Trip: Cascade Pass Area - Eldorado peak east ridge

 

Date: 8/12/2012

 

Trip Report:

We took off for the mountains bound for something with a north / northeast view with a nearby peak to frame for optimal meteor viewing. Thoughts of a long carry into Glacier Peak area were cast off once Everett traffic reared its ugly head... so we opted for Eldorado instead. A quick stop for a new map (despite having 2 gps units with us - I love paper) and we were off to grab permits and get some shut eye.

 

Up the trail in the morning was pleasant, that is to say that it wasn't blisteringly hot yet. We scampered up the boulder field and across the ridge and up the Eldorado glacier. The snow started on the flats before the ridge crossing, and the scramble down to Eldorado glacier was easily found and navigated.

 

We set up camp and enjoyed the views and watched a group climb to the summit in the early evening. Set up a timelapse that caught the meteor shower (and some planes and satellites) along with the aurora anmd moonrise and then sunrise.

 

The climb was straightforward. We roped up for the ascent but scrambled rocks beside the glacier on the way down and avoided roping up on the way down. Then the long slog out to the car...

 

 

 

 

Meteor timelapse: Perseid meteor shower over Eldoardo peak

 

 

Taking a breather adn enjoying the views towards Cascade pass

 

Topping out on the flats of Eldaroad glacier

 

Open crevasse near route - still a rather stable bridge across on far left near rocks, though.

 

camp in the early morning when I woke to stop the timelapse

 

Gear Notes:

standard glacier gear

 

Approach Notes:

Trail in great shape. Easy trail finding through boulder field. Snow before Rousch / Eldorado Ridge, easy scramble down to glacier.

[Off_White]

That time lapse video is really splendid, thanks!

[Devin27]

Nicely done time lapse. Out of interest, how long did you have that running for and I assume you have to a battery pack for your DSLR. I burned up a battery in about an hour of shooting meteors on Shuksan

[alpine et]

Thanks! Ya know you make a good point, I have a battery grip that I've never used... that would have been a good place to use it, but I felt like I carried enough stuff on the trip already.

 

I actually started it off on the battery I had in the camera with about 50% charge. I hung out for an hour or so with the camera, and inbetween exposures I swapped in a fresh one. Recently upgraded to a 60D... it has much bigger and heavier batteries than my old Rebel, so I'm sure that translates into longer life... I hope! They seem to do real well.

 

Timelapse was shot over 6.5 hours (30" exposures spaced 35" apart. Put together at 24fps).

[markwebster]

Awesome timelapse. I loved the way you can feel the earth spinning under the camera! So I'm assuming you used the built in timelapse function settings on your 60D?

 

I've heard of external add ons that do it too...

 

I've never done one, but you make it look very cool. And then I presume you brought the images into something like Adobe Premiere to get the video?

[alpine et]

Thanks! I have an intervalometer I use for timing the shots. Canon has a spendy one but if you google around there are good cheap alternatives.

 

Yup, adobe premiere...brought them into Lightroom and applied a real subtle adjustment, and then to premiere. Pretty easy, really...just lucky the views were so good and the moon didn't wash it out halfway through...

 

this is basically what I have (Link). Canon makes one that is about double...

[Devin27]

Thanks for that link, I have been looking for a long time for one that works with my XSi that isnt as big and expensive as the cannon model.

[jon]

Catching that meteor exploding at 20 second in is pretty cool! Thanks for sharing.

[mattschweiker]

Really cool!!

[dennyt]

Excellent!

 

You don't even need an intervalometer, just set your camera to manual, exposure to 30 seconds, shutter to continuous, and lock down a manual shutter release cable (the $40 one, not the $200 one). It's lighter, too

[alpine et]

Excellent!

 

You don't even need an intervalometer, just set your camera to manual, exposure to 30 seconds, shutter to continuous, and lock down a manual shutter release cable (the $40 one, not the $200 one). It's lighter, too

 

yeah - good call! the intervalometer isn't too heavy (I mean, I already had the rope, tripod, 60D, tent......) but the cheapo one I have is big, and is annoying to pack. Continuous shooting works well with most time lapses in the backcountry... most things are moving quick enough (clouds or meteors) that you want to be capturing rather continuously.

 

With daytime timelapses it might be nice to be able to insert a few seconds between each frame... your camera will really be going bonkers nailing out 1/100" exposures over and over.

[dennyt]

Yeah, I mentioned it mostly for people who want to make time lapses without spending a bunch of money.

 

For daytime exposures I like to add an ND filter to lengthen the exposure, so you can shoot continuously and moving objects glide frame to frame. Otherwise, if you add a delay between exposures, fast-moving things seem to jump from frame to frame.

[alpine et]

you use screw on ND? I've messed around with Cokins filters before, the rectangular ones, but they were bulky and a bit annoying. Pretty intrigued by the vari-nd filters, but they are so expensive!!

[ChuckC]

Wow. Thanks for sharing that.

[markwebster]

I did buy a variable ND filter, but I foolishly bought it for my smallest lens...the el cheapo nifty fifty for shooting video. It was $120. I've since bought a fixed ND filter for my larger lens, and it was around $70. It works fine, even though it's fixed.

[Josh Lewis]

Nice time lapse. I decided to add it to the Eldorado Peak page as seen here:

http://www.summitpost.org/eldorado-peak/150316#chapter_14

[alpine et]

cool, thanks Josh - happy to contribute!