8,868 feet
East Ridge, Grade II, 35° snow
- Gear Used:
- 2 ice tools
- crampons
October 27-28, 2008
8,868 feet
The Approach
It's a good 3 hour drive to get to the trailhead for this scenic climb. I work late on Sunday nights and it seems to be getting harder an harder to wake up early for these long drives. The drive is easy but seems slow due to the low speed limits on HWY 20. We stopped by the ranger station in Marble Mount to get our required overnight permit but they were not open. So we filled out a the permit form manually and headed up the Cascade River Road. This road winds up to Cascade Pass in about 22 miles from Marble Mount. To get to the Eldorado trail you pull over in a large parking lot with a out house at about mile 19. This was the end of the road this time of year anyway's as they close the gate here for the winter.
The weather forecast was looking great considering it is October in the North West. The morning was a bit cold and damp but as soon as we started moving the layers had to be removed. The trail starts about 100 feet back down the road where you will find large trees spanning the length of the river. The trees are easy to cross but can get real slippery! Once you are across the river keep your eyes open for the correct trail. It was pretty obvious to me but all the guide books seem to say it is hard to follow at first.
The funny thing about climbing Eldorado Peak is that the approach is so much harder and longer than the climb. It is a full on North Cascade suffer fest! The hike to high camp involves 5 miles and over 5,000 vertical feet of hiking, boulder hopping and steep grunting through the forest. The hardest part for me was the at least 1,000 vertical feet of talus field. We found that it seemed easier to follow a trail on the right hand side of the talus field. It was still difficult but the occasional trail was a relief from boulder hopping!
Mark somewhere in a field of boulders.
After the talus field you cross the creek and hike into a beautiful basin full of waterfalls and meadows. It was a relief to finally get high enough that you could see Sahale Peak and other surrounding mountains.
Finally nearing the meadows.
The meadows start at about 5,000 feet and the trail switchbacks up past good camping at about 5,500 feet. We hiked on toward the ridge on the west side of the meadows at about 6,100 feet. From here we had to down climb a gully for about 150 feet into the Roush Creek basin. The gully is usually really easy but we found it slippery and sketchy with about 5 inches of snow on top of slippery heather.
The snow covered meadows with Johannesberg in the back drop.
The Roush Creek basin is an amazing place! The Eldorado Glacier pours down the valley and the polished slabs of rock provide great camping. We hiked up the moraine and onto the slabs before deciding that we were not going to make it to our proposed camp. We set up on the slabs which worked out perfect as we had running water and warmer night time temps. Normally we would carry up for another hour or so onto the Eldorado Glacier or maybe even to the shoulder of Eldorado Peak. What's the point when the route is only about 45 minutes from the glacier? We made camp down low with hopes of waking up early for the climb in the morning.
Mark in our home for the night.
An early night in the north cascades.
The Climb
Our plan was to wake up early and climb the Northeast Face of Eldorado. We came prepared with ice tools, crampons and ice screws. I was hoping to get on some moderate ice to kick start my winter of ice climbing. Once again, we slept in! Why do I have to be so comfortable in my sleeping bad? Maybe I shouldn't even take one anymore so I can be uncomfortable all night and maybe I'll actually wake up on time.
We wasted more time sitting around in the sun wondering what we should do. Eventually we decided to at least throw on our packs and just start hiking to the base of Eldorado.
We quickly made it up to the Eldorado Glacier and the toe of the East Ridge in about 45 minute. We figured it would take us about another 45 minutes to make it to the summit via the East Ridge.
The view across the Eldorado Glacier.
We followed a set of foot prints from another parties descent which stayed on the ridge the whole time and avoided the glacier. We figured we didn't really have time to play on the glacier so we just put our heads down and marched forward.
Forbidden Peak.
Mark climbing the East Ridge.
We came to a couple spots that had some hard ice with pretty bad fall potential which was a little scary since neither of us were wearing crampons and we were using trekking poles. We quickly made it up to the highlight of Eldorado Peak!
Mark starting the ridge to the summit.
We traded trekking poles for ice tools and strapped on our crampons for the ridge to the summit. it was fairly icy in sections and we were both happy to have the security of out tools and spikes. Although an ice axe would of been much more helpful than the short ice tools. We spent little time on the summit as we hoped to get back to the car before the short amount of day light fails on us.
Me on the summit of Eldorado.
Mark descending the ridge.
Mark crossing the mile wide Eldorado Glacier.
We quickly hiked back to camp and packed up to head down.
Packing up to head home.
Much pain and cursing ensued on our descent that barely beat the darkness.
- Car-Camp: 4,460 vertical feet - 4:55
- Camp-Summit: 2,400 vertical feet - 2:12
- Summit-Camp: 2,400 vertical feet - 0:54
- Camp-Car: 4,460 vertical feet - 2:40
-Useful guide books-
