May 22, 2011, El Dorado
5/22/11
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
6262
5
Victor and I climbed/skied Eldorado car-to-car on Sunday. Once again the rain was coming down hard when we left Seattle but it only rained/snowed on us for a few minutes all day. It even cleared sufficiently to give us excellent views from the summit, great visibility for most of the ski down, and sunburned hands (light-weight gloves a necessity this time of year). No other skiers on the mountian but many climbers creating a large highway to the summit.
The Cascade River road is open and in excellent condition all the way to the Eldorado trailhead (gated after that), so yes Good2Go Ill save you the post, a car-to-car strategy should be no problem for a fit party right now ::). Continuous snow cover starts around 4000 ft, right where the slide alder and boulders begin :). We left our shoes and skinned from there and we were able to ski all the way back to our shoes on the return. The snow was decent corn with a little fresh on the east facing slopes from the summit area back down to the inspiration glacier (7400 ft), making for a good 1200 ft run. The snow was heavy and wet for the traverse back across the glacier; it felt like we were water skiing at times. Wet sloughs were prevalent on the steeper south and south-east slopes below the 6400 ft notch. The slides made us a bit nervous but thankfully they moved slowly.
All in all a fantastic day in the mountains despite a mediocre forecast; sometimes it pays to just go anyway.
The Cascade River road is open and in excellent condition all the way to the Eldorado trailhead (gated after that), so yes Good2Go Ill save you the post, a car-to-car strategy should be no problem for a fit party right now ::). Continuous snow cover starts around 4000 ft, right where the slide alder and boulders begin :). We left our shoes and skinned from there and we were able to ski all the way back to our shoes on the return. The snow was decent corn with a little fresh on the east facing slopes from the summit area back down to the inspiration glacier (7400 ft), making for a good 1200 ft run. The snow was heavy and wet for the traverse back across the glacier; it felt like we were water skiing at times. Wet sloughs were prevalent on the steeper south and south-east slopes below the 6400 ft notch. The slides made us a bit nervous but thankfully they moved slowly.
All in all a fantastic day in the mountains despite a mediocre forecast; sometimes it pays to just go anyway.
That last picture screams Cascadia!
To paraphrase a famous French man "Vive le Cascadia libre!". :)
Additional pictures of this beautiful Cascadia country can be found at : https://picasaweb.google.com/victormesny/Eldorado#
Additional pictures of this beautiful Cascadia country can be found at : https://picasaweb.google.com/victormesny/Eldorado#
Another great trip and report.
keep it up!
and excuse my ignorance, but what famous french man are you talking about?
keep it up!
and excuse my ignorance, but what famous french man are you talking about?
author=alecapone link=topic=20931.msg89437#msg89437 date=1306339151]
but what famous french man are you talking about?
Charles de Gaulle "Vive le Québec libre!", July 24, 1967.
A few more pictures with one skiing Eldorado East ridge before the next rolling wave of clouds comes in.
Thanks for that post- we followed and quoted your advice in dicey forcast and went up the following week-
you gotta pay to play/ gotta gamble to win, eh!
The slog can be underestimated...
you gotta pay to play/ gotta gamble to win, eh!
The slog can be underestimated...
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