Home > Trip Reports > July 17, 2010, Eldorado

July 17, 2010, Eldorado

7/17/10
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
6126
8
Posted by chmnyboy on 7/18/10 12:13pm
After sleeping through the alarm, Skier8484 and I left the parking lot at 5.15am finding the logbridge and the trail just shy of the lot at milepost 20. Although the hike through forest, bush, and talus was nearly 4k', it was pleasant and we made it to snowline in the creek basin by 7:45 (6100'). Relying on visual navigation, we were stopped when the morning mist descended and whited us out. Fearing a repeat of our last trip where we were socked in all day, a 45 minute nap was perfect to let the clouds dissipate so that we could spot our route through the notch onto the Eldorado Glacier. We chose the wrong gulley through the notch, so we spent a fair bit of time tossing gear onto the snowfield below and scrambling down the cliffs in our ski boots. Once over the notch, we climbed the Eldorado, crossed the Inspiration, and climbed the shoulder of the peak on skins. We had ambitions to skin the summit, but pushing the limits of my skinning ability resulted in a shirtless tumble near the summit, prompting us to boot the final 50'. The very last push was pretty exposed, so skinning wasn't a good idea anyway.

We made the summit by 11:15 and met the only other climbers on the peak, Curtis and Alyson. After a brief introduction we were on our way and had a great descent back to snowline below 6k'. The ideal descent time was probably 11am sharp, but the snow was still in awesome condition.

Back at 6000€™, we put our shoes back on and descended the talus. For me this the toughest part of the day, leaping downward from rock to rock with the tails of my skis bashing against everything and tossing me off balance. Still, an awesome day.

Brian skinning up Eldorado:


Summit View:


Brian drops:


More:
(pick through to find this trip)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2604198&id=10704841&l=ccd0228574
Sounds like a good day; patience pays off?  I really like the third photo, which captures the feel of dropping that crazy knife edge. 

author=chmnyboy link=topic=17187.msg72348#msg72348 date=1279509221]
We had ambitions to skin the summit, but pushing the limits of my skinning ability resulted in a shirtless tumble near the summit, prompting us to boot the final 50'.


This definitely made for some humor right before the final summit push, but it was a worthy price to pay for the right to go "Top down screamin' out money in the bank!" all the way to the summit.

Another awesome trip in the books during the season that just doesn't seem to want to end.

it's money aint a thing.....


::) white people.


haha.. I was just comin to edit myself!

author=alecapone link=topic=17187.msg72387#msg72387 date=1279596763]
it's money aint a thing.....


::) white people.


Too much jive talkin' ...................................
Congrats on a successful summit guys!  :D.
Did you end up with any road rash from your slide Tyler?   ???
Glad to see you've returned to summer attire Brian, we were wondering if we were going to have to call the fashion police  ;)

Your ski buddies

Nice to meet you two on the summit - Kurt's got some good photos of you dropping in- I'll send them to you once I get them downloaded. What an awesome day!

That is such an impressive area and good thing too as the remarkable aesthetics warrent the trials of the climber's trail and boulder field.  I was hoping to get up there again this season but now with my ski boat finally in the water, such trips seem like comparatively much more effort.  Funny how that works.
Thanks for the TR

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july-17-2010-eldorado
chmnyboy
2010-07-18 19:13:41