Sometimes you just gotta go and take a look. That was my philosophy this spring, where we lacked good weather windows and corn cycles. After a great uncertain-forecast day on Baker, I set my sights on Eldorado. It’s one of the 50 classics, and a popular easy climb in the cascades. We got to the trailhead on Sunday night, where we scoped out the river crossing and talked to a party of three also going up the next day. After a few hours of sleep, we were on the move at 03:00. The initial steep bushwacking was brutal, but we gained elevation fast. We were passed by two trail-runners but still felt good about our pace.
Keenan being one with the Talus
Eventually we made it out to the Talus field, where we slogged and scraped our skis up for hours. By the time we made it out of the Talus field, we almost caught up with some snowshoers. We put on skins near the NOLS tents and worked our way onto the Eldorado Glacier where we were passed by the party of three. Though it was a whiteout, we decided to keep going since we still had visibility and a skin track.
As we followed the track, a solo splitboarder caught up to us named Emily. Since it was a whiteout on a glacier, we decided it’d be good if we all stuck together. After some traversing, we realized the skintrack went too far, and as I checked my phone, I dropped by glove on the steep crusted slope. Keenan went after it but his ski came off and flew down the hill out of site. Momentarily, the clouds parted and we saw his ski 300’ below. Once we regrouped, we headed up to the summit knife-edge, topping out at 11:00.
Keenan going down to his ski
Me nearing the summit
From there, we skied down great snow and after a few hours of talus and bushwack suffering, made it back to the car at 15:00. While we didn’t get great views, it was still a great day and I met a new partner.
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