[GeoTom]

Trip overview: Skilled skier: Scott Adequate skier: GeoTom Maps: Green Trails #48 Diablo Dam and a TOPO! creation. Access: Highway 20 > Cascade River Road Trails: Nothing official, but just cross the river and take the steepest route you can find. It's easy to follow, if a bit steep. Mileage: ~10 round trip Elevation Gain: ~7,000 with the ups and downs. Summits: Eldorado Peak (8,868') Trip Details: I had been interested in climbing Eldorado Peak ever since I saw the photo of the summit ridge in this book:

Last July my friend Scott and I were set to go but the weather deteriorated so we changed plans and headed east to the Craggies. A couple weeks ago I brought Eldorado up in conversation, and Scott said that we should ski it. I had recently got back into skiing after several years away from the slopes. I had even purchased a (slightly used) touring setup and some well fitting, if a bit questionable color, touring boots. The problem was I had only ridden the lifts three times in March and April and done a grand total of two tours: Skyline Lake up and back twice in a day and Cowboy Mountain, hardly comparable to Eldorado Peak. With that wealth of experience how could I say no to Eldorado Peak? Inspired by Yana, dicey, Laurie and fwb2 I thought we might be able to climb Klawatti Peak while we were in the neighborhood too. Hey, a guy can dream big, right? We arrived in Marblemount a few minutes before 7:00 am and got the permits we wanted. We drove to the parking area and managed to squeeze into a spot and got our packs ready. We knew we would have a little over 2,000 feet of hiking before we hit enough snow to start skinning. I chose to wear my hiking shoes which meant my not very lightweight ski boots had to be carried, along with the rest of the crap I had somehow squeezed into my pack. My pack was losing the battle with gravity even before I put it on my back:

Ugh

The stream crossing that I had been worrying about turned out to be relatively painless. The first log was a bit damp and angled up, but a smaller branch was available as a handhold and we made it to the larger diameter logs and crossed the Cascade River without falling in.

Scott starts across the Cascade River

Safely across, we exchanged a celebratory nod and unofficially started up the trail. The blowdowns that Yana could walk right under the previous week were not as manageable being taller than 5'-5' and having skis sticking up even further, but we got through the worst of them before the trail got really steep. Just as I thought the trail was going vertical on me, I spotted a flattish spot and stopped for a break. I dared not remove my pack as I would have been tempted to leave it there and wait for help. Losing sight of Scott I started hiking again and after a brief battle with some slide alder found him sitting at the lower edge of the first talus field. We took a short break here and enjoyed the views towards Cascade Pass and Johannesburg Mountain.

Lower talus field

Johannesburg Mountain

A nice couple and a group of three gazelles emerged from the woods and hiked past us. Packs were shouldered once again and we headed through the small talus field and into the second larger one a little higher up. Soon we encountered enough snow to warrant putting the skis on and skinning up into the upper Eldorado Creek basin. I stashed my hiking boots in a stuff stack and left them secure under some rocks. I wondered if anyone would take them as I had forgotten to write 'donut steel' on the outside of the bag.

Time for skis

Snags in Eldorado Creek basin

Scott made good progress up the snow slopes while I flailed away below. The combination of sloppy snow, occasional vegetation and my lack of ability, er, experience made for slow progress and I let the expletives fly, albeit under my breath. After a couple hundred feet I had enough and took the skis off, put them back on the pack and booted up to a waiting Scott at ~5,500 feet. Conditions improved enough for me to resume skinning and we made it to the ridge separating the Eldorado Creek and Roush Creek drainages without incident.

Torment?

Cascade and Johannesburg Mountains

The ridge that separates us from Eldorado

Scott getting ready to start up again

Skinning

The gully that everyone appeared to be using to descend to the Eldorado Glacier was still snow filled, but a bit narrow and had a moat at the bottom. We removed the skis but carried them in our hands for this part. Luckily the moat was narrow enough get get across without jumping, and soon enough we were back on skis heading up the Eldorado Glacier. We saw a large group ahead (informed by others descending that it was a BoeAlps class), and even got a glimpse of the top of Eldorado Peak. Scott led the way and immediately pulled a dicey to my Yana by instantly being several hundred feet ahead of me. Shutter delay was the main excuse.

Contemplating our descent into Roush Basin

Descending the gully of annoyance

Tree

BoeAlps group ahead

Wispy clouds

Things were going well for a little while, but again my poor form made for difficult travel. I decided to remove the skis once again and boot it up the well travelled boot track. Other than the weight of the skis trying to pull me back, I felt pretty good. At least until I turned around and saw a lone figure approaching alarmingly fast. As the person got closer I saw that it was a Park Ranger and that he only had a day pack (with skis attached). He caught up to me and we talked for a minute. He looked familiar to me then I read his nametag. Turns out he was a grad student in the geology department at WWU while I was an undergrad, and he had been my TA in one of my lab classes. Small world. After a few minutes more of conversation, he said he was heading back down so I continued my slow ascent. Right on cue at ~7,400' the slope flattened out and I saw Scott once again waiting for me. We could see lots of camps set up and figured we would at least head to the east ridge of Eldorado and find a suitable camp spot. Travel went quickly across this section, and we passed by other camps onto the other side of the East Ridge and the Inspiration Glacier. We found a decent spot at ~7,800', a couple hundred feet higher than the masses, set up camp and enjoyed dinner and snacks.

The Triad

Glacier Peak

Johannesburg again

Climbers on Eldorado

Klawatti Peak

Eldorado over Scott

Sun and Eldorado

Forbidden Peak over Moraine Lake

My shadow legs are longer than my real ones

View from camp

Goodbye sun

Scott at camp

Dark shadows falling

Glacier Peak from camp

Low light on Klawatti

Evening light on the Cascade Range

Two climbers heading back to camp

Moon over Snowking

We went to bed about 9:30 pm and chatted for a little bit before trying to get some sleep. Between the tent flapping in the breeze, then Scott's snoring later I got very little good sleep. I did have a dream where I was trying to repair somebody's Suunto altimeter but I ended up breaking it. Morning eventually came and I got out of the tent to no wind and some nice views.

Morning view from camp

Brightness in the eastern sky

Camp in morning

Forbidden morning

Southern morning view

4 labels

Pointy Peak

3 labels

More morning views

We were in no real hurry to start up right away as we wanted the snow to be a bit softer for the descent. I went back in the sleeping bag and got the best 45 minutes of sleep I had all night. The sun eventually hit the tent and it began to resemble a sauna, so I got out of the bag once more and started melting a little snow for water. Without the wind of the previous evening this process went much faster. After some water and a light breakfast, I packed a few things into my pack and we started skinning up the slopes. The snow was nice, and I had little difficulty keeping close enough to Scott to carry on a conversation. Except when I was overcome with more shutter delay.

Snowking and friends

Klawatti is still steep

Traffic jam

Increasing views

Tepeh Towers and Klawatti

The BoeAlps class rope teams were descending from the summit and we crossed paths at ~8,400'. I managed to not get tangled up in their ropes and continued my ascent. A group of three was still on the summit, one with skis. These were the gazelles that had passed us on the boulder field the day before. Scott got a short video of the skier dropping off from the summit, and we chatted briefly with the two non-skiers as they descended.

Member of a Boe Alps team descending

Heading for the sky

At ~8,600' we removed the skis and put crampons on. The last bit to the summit was airy, but not as intimidating as I had imagined. Maybe if it had been really icy on both sides I would have been a little more alarmed, but the southern side was almost perfect and the sidewalk was well defined. The very top was a bit windy, but the views were amazing. My photos don't do it justice, but here are a few:

Baker and Shuksan come into view

Sidewalk on the arete

Northern views

Summit views

The summit (almost)

Eldorado Icecap from summit

Dorado Needle

The summit

Baker from Eldorado

Views from the top

Klawatti from Eldorado

Soapy off a rope

Scott contemplating the final five feet

We only stayed on the top 20 minutes or so as it was a bit windy. Someone had left his gloves and heavier jacket in the tent too (it wasn't Scott). Crampons came off, skis went back on, and I watched as Scott made it through his first couple turns and stopped a hundred feet below me to video my final moments. I managed to drop off the correct side, traverse a little below the ridge top then make my first turn. Then I heard a snap and my right arm started dropping faster than I wanted. I slid to an amusing stop (can it be called a fall if I am leaning into the slope?). My trekking pole was broken. Who needs poles to ski anyway? As Yana pointed out to me, the use of poles leads to bad form. At least that's my excuse for years of bad form. I skied down to Scott, put the broken pole on my pack, and we enjoyed a very nice ski back to camp. The snow was in great shape up here, and I actually resembled a skier for a few minutes. We ate an early lunch at camp then packed up and skied down to the flat area. While the steeper parts were still in pretty good shape, the flat section was getting soft and I came to a stop. Not wanting to take the time to put the skins back on, we managed to glide our way (Scott gracefully, me not as much) to the brink of the non-flat area and resumed our skiing to ~6,100 in Roush Basin. The snow here was not as good as above, but still fun and we soon found ourselves back at the bottom of the moat we had crossed the previous day.

The flat stretch of irritation

Scott heads for the spire

BoeAlps class descends

Scott and Glacier Peak

Hidden Lake Peaks

The moat had increased in size and we didn't like the looks of it. There were some newer tracks that continued a couple hundred feet (only ~50 feet further vertically) down the ridge and we found a much smaller moat and a fairly easy snow slope that we used to regain the ridge. The ski into Eldorado Creek Basin was very sloppy, but still more enjoyable than walking through it. At ~4,800 the snow was so crappy and too many rocks were becoming exposed for me to safely continue the way we had ascended. The snow was better to our left (climber's right), but the trees got a bit thicker, and I wasn't confident in my ability to avoid them all.

Climbing out of Roush Basin

Skiing through the trees

A water source

I removed the skis and booted it down some tracks. These tracks led me to some interesting posthole opportunities, which I took full advantage of. I arrived at 4,350' to find Scott sitting on a rock about 10 feet from where I had stashed my hiking boots. We were done skiing and ready to descent the pleasant trail back to the Cascade River. Travel through the talus field was annoying as the skis hung down a little from our packs and they would occasionally hit some of the larger blocks. We continued on, and eventually made it to the trail, which appeared to have gotten steeper than the day before. Faced with no other viable options, we stumbled down and {yada, yada, yada} found the log crossing still intact, and surprisingly easier than the previous morning.

Cascade Pass area

Scott navigates the talus

Trillium

Drier log then the previous morning

Safely across the river and back the hundred feet to Scott's vehicle, my pack came off for the last time. A stop at Cascadian Farms for a Raspberry-Chocolate Chip cone (milkshake for Scott) was most welcome. We arrived at his house to find Dani and Jasper visiting with Kristine and Loki. Even though I had already had my dessert, pizza and beer were consumed and enjoyed heartily. I will definitely go back to that area, but next time would like 4 or 5 days to spend exploring a bit more. The same photos and a few more similar ones on flickr.

[Tazz]

you left soapy unroped on that summit! what kind of dad are you? good stuff!

[Magellan]

Great stuff. Your story is making me hungry for Eldorado...

[peltoms]

To make carrying those heavy skiis worth it, and extra up high to just ski is what makes it all worth it. Way to mono-pole it down.

[wamtngal]

Way to knock E off, Tom. And in style too. But seriously, isn't it about time that Soapy get some adequate training? I'm concerned about his wellbeing. It seems as though he is tempting fate one too many times these days...

[GeoTom]

I have talked extensively with Soapy about him taking some sort of class, but he just sits there with that stupid grin and doesn't say a thing. And I'm not sure how much *style* I showed, but it was a fun trip. Here are the videos that seemed to be messing up the TR last night: Almost to the summit: On the summit: Skiing below camp: Skiing into Roush Basin:

[Ingunn]

Most excellent (oh, Eldorado ), even though Soapy continues to ignore our advice. Since you are a Pole, wouldn't using two extra poles just be cheating?

[dicey]

Looks familiar! So, how did you like skiing with a full overnight pack on? I can barely ski with a day pack on

[Layback]

For some reason this TR wouldn't open for me last night. I'm glad that I am able to read it today. Thanks for posting it. Great pics!

[GeoTom]

Layback- Something about the videos I added caused the TR to misbehave. Tom fixed it though, so all is well. I supposed it got a few extra views to add to the view count as a result. And the videos seem to work fine as a separate post. dicey- It was um, interesting. At least I am used to skiing with a daypack (when I actually ski), and the load wasn't too bad without the skis and boots strapped to the pack.

[Gabigabs]

Awesome adventure and fantastic pics. This one's been on my list for a while. Now I want to go there even more.

[Josh Journey]

Nice photos! Helps me keep a good up to date idea of the place.

[Randy]

You're an *inspiration* Tom. I'm really scared of hauling my overnight with skis up that thing this weekend.

[Karen²]

Sweet! That is one heck of a ski run and the TR was an amusing read as always.

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Ah the heck with the poles! I never get tired of reading Eldorado TRs. Especially when they have lots of pretty pictures. Congrats on the summit.