May 12, 2007, CRR 3-FER Klawatti/Austera/Eldorad

Monika and I slept at the Eldo TH on Friday under a clear sky and got a reasonable 05:30 start on Saturday.  Nothing has changed on the trail to Eldorado, the first few K's are DEFINITELY UPHILL.  Snow  is continuous about the start of the second boulder field and we were able to halfway posthole on a breakable crust from there.  Crossing the ridge to Roush held no problems.  Made decent time up the Inspiration Glacier and onto the shoulder of Eldorado and a nice sit down break.  Crossed under the Tepeh towers towards Klawatti with a rising traverse from 7,500 to 7,800, signs of crevasses are slowly starting to appear, but still very good travelling.  Postholing up the SW chute on Klawatti was a chore.  Monika went first and dug down deep and I came after and made sure the bootpack was twice as deep .  It was a relief to be standing at the top.  Another nice sit down break.  Ski back down to Klawatti col was nice.  Traversed in the shade of Klawatti on the McAllister Glacier to the notch in the N ridge.  The crossing to the Klawatti Glacier was very easy, no rope needed.  Very enjoyable skinning and nice snow on the Klawatti Glacier towards Austera Towers.  Skinned to the false summit, left the skis and dropped down to the base of the summit gulley.  Gulley has a short ice step, but chimney is narrow right there so we were able to get up it with a couple of moves on the rock.  Pretty easy going up, careful going down.  Beautiful views from the top of Austera.  The skiing down the Klawatti Glacier was corn of the best kind.  Traversing back to Klawatti Col went very quick and the day was still young so we set a high traverse towards the NE Face of Eldorado, skinned up most of it and popped out on the ridge at around 8,500 to the surprise of the first person we had seen that day.  Nice snow off the top of Eldorado, but below 7,500 it was like skiing a milkshake.  Able to ski to around 4,200, pick up the shoes and the thigh hammering steep trail down to the river.  A very fulfilling day indeed!!