Eldorado, NW Couloir

original trip report: https://engineeredforadventure.com/eldorado-peak-nw-couloir/

Background

This year I've been focused on trying to become a more well-rounded ski mountaineer. My current technical abilities are far below my physical and ski abilities and I want to round that out more. Thus far, it's mostly involved dry tooling, playing with ropes in the garage, and occasional steep snow when conditions align.

The month of January was marked by high pressure with warmth and a significant rain event to start off the high pressure, creating ice in the high alpine. Porter had tried to go and climb the NW Couloir on Eldorado a week prior, but timing didn't quite work out. He was psyched to go back. A week out we saw good weather forecast for the end of another high pressure period and made plans to go back and give it another try. Lane and Nate were also psyched and we talked through how to efficiently manage 4 people through an ice climbing line. We'd split into two groups of two for the climbing and hopefully share the ascent and descent together.

Trip Report

We drove out to CRR the night before and camped at the Eldorado parking lot. It was both alarming and quite pleasant to put down a blue Ikea tarp on the ground and sleep outside entirely comfortable: 55F and no bugs. It's sad that's the reality of this early February, maybe a sign of years to come with climate change, but for the moment Nate and I enjoyed the pleasant outdoor living while Porter and Lane slept in their cars.

We set our alarms for 4:30AM, planning to leave the car by 5AM. We estimated it'd take us ~5 hours to get to the rappel by the Tepeh Towers, which would put us climbing the route by 11A or so. We made quick work of the river crossing and were hiking up through the dry forest without issue. The boulderfield was quite dry, all the way to ~4500' with nearly no snow. It then became an annoying combination of snow and posthole for a few hundred feet until we were able to put on skins and begin traveling easier. We moved over Roush Divide without issue, finding a tent perched on the crest and two skiers just ahead of us on the Eldorado.

I was quite surprised and pleasantly impressed with snow coverage above 5500' in the Cascade River Road environs. For such a bleak year, snow coverage above 5500' seems pretty good. Rocky ridgelines are very bare, having shed most of their winter coat, but my impression was not one of worry but rather of hope for the spring to come. We just need it to start snowing again!

Around 15 minutes into the climb up the Eldorado, Lane brought up splitting the group and we all talked through how to do that effectively. I had a 40m tag line for a rappel; Porter and I would fix that to the anchor and leave it for Lane and Nate to rappel on. They would clean the rope on their rappel. Porter and I pushed ahead, trying to accelerate such that Lane and Nate wouldn't be waiting too much for us to get through the climb. We caught up to the party of two and chatted with them briefly. They were enjoying an overnight up to Eldorado, which explained the tent we had seen. Our anxiety of another climbing group ahead of us was quelled.

Without issue Porter and I reached and set up the 40m rappel. A brief downclimb with tools, with one awkward move around an icy rock bulge, put us in view of the route. It looked FAT! We were both psyched; we booted over to the base of the route through posthole-y, soft snow and looked up. Porter had brought a mixed rack of gear, 3 ice screws, pitons, and cams; it was looking like a pure ice line today. We talked through how to climb the route, with Porter doing the leading as I was a new ice climber. He wanted to take a prouder line up the lower pitch, which we'd belay, then we would try and simul-climb or solo the rest of the couloir depending on conditions.

We reached the base of the first pitch and tied in. Porter blasted up a steep line just to climber's left of the main gut of the couloir, which meant I was to follow. Pretty quickly, it was my turn to follow and I pushed up, excited to start swinging tools. The ice was soft and fat, which made for excellent climbing, but my diagonal ski carry was not well set up and the skis over my left shoulder were quite annoying for the first pitch. The vertical or near-vertical ice was challenging with my left tool, as I would swing back into my ski and not get much momentum on the swing. Bummer! Lesson learned, more diagonal.

After the first pitch, we began simul-climbing, with Porter placing some pretty spaced out pieces of protection. We talked this through, it was acknowledged, but we certainly reflected on how we wished we had more than 3 screws. The ice was very good and we felt secure just on our tools, knowing that the protection we were placing was more mental than physical. I was psyched that I felt confident on my feet, practicing the motions I had worked through on dry rock. Porter was a great partner to help me get reps, confident in his own right and very willing to share tips and tricks.

We pulled the rope and soloed the last 80 meters or so. Lane and Nate radioed up that they were going to wait for us to clear the couloir before climbing. Porter and I felt comfortable soloing the upper, lower angle ice and we quickly cruised to the top. Our calves were burning by the end! We topped out, tapped tools, and radioed down that we were through. The climbing had taken us roughly 90 minutes, from bottom of couloir to the top.

We put on puffies and waited in a sun scoop just below the summit of Eldo, but pretty quickly realized that we wouldn't be able to comfortably wait here the ~2 hours it would likely take Lane and Nate to get up to us. Lane had radioed up that we did not have to wait for them, and after 45 minutes or an hour of relaxing we chatted with them that we'd wait at the car. We topped out Eldo, skied down the butter knife ridge, and enjoyed some pseudo corn turns down the glacier. The boulderfield sucked, as usual, but before long Porter and I were back at the car.

We put my mattress down on our blue tarp, took a nap, and waited for Lane and Nate. We briefly chatted with them when they finished; they were psyched on the route as well but were similarly surprised by how fat it was! All of our calves were pumped. We were all content with another day in CRR, hoping for some colder weather to return.

Final Thoughts

• We definitely wished we had more ice screws. Porter had x2 13cm and x1 15cm screws. Yes, this route can be more of a mixed climb in different conditions but we wished we had 5 or 6 screws.
• The rappel off the Inspiration is clearable with 40m but you will have to downclimb a bit. A full 60m would get you through everything. The rap is on two pitons with some new looking tat. It wouldn't hurt to bring your own cord and clean the old stuff.