Klawatti, S Face + Eldo, SW Couloir

Original trip report: https://engineeredforadventure.com/klawatti-s-face-eldorado-sw-couloir/

TL;DR boulderfield is mostly dry, river crossing is a little high and we just took off shoes.

Background

Corn set up surprisingly fast this April. In a matter of a few days, solar slopes went from cold boottop powder to ripper, smooth corn. I had texted Wyatt and Thomas earlier in the week about skiing Tuesday; initially, we had tossed around north-facing ideas around CRR and Hwy 20. As I skied around Cascade River Road the days leading up to Tuesday, I found that souths might be the move. I gave them the down low over inReach and we tossed around ideas.

Thomas proposed heading up onto the Eldorado Icecap, pushing over towards Klawatti. I'd never been past Eldorado in the numerous times I'd been up on the 'cap, so I was psyched. It'd be a scenic tour, gawking over at the peaks surrounding. I had brief bits of cell service up on Sahale, the day prior, and got a text from Thomas with the Swan Song Couloir as a proposal to check out. Wyatt had to work, unfortunately, so it'd just be Thomas and I. He planned to leave Seattle around 9PM or so and meet me at the Eldo trailhead, we'd get moving by 5:15AM or so.

Trip Report

I woke up to pee around 3AM and was surprised to not see another car in sight. Uh oh...where's Thomas? I turned on my inReach...dude, I'm having car trouble. My partner lent me her car so I'll drive out in the morning. Brutal. A 2:30AM start for Thomas was a stark comparison to my 9PM bedtime. Sure enough, though, Thomas rolled up just on time, stoked as ever.

Our plan was still pretty loose as we crossed the river. Head up the icecap...then Thomas started to throw some ideas at the wall and see what stuck. Thomas proposed linking up the south face of Klawatti with a southwest facing couloir Drew Tabke and crew had skied just beneath the summit of Eldorado a few years prior, what Drew dubbed 'Eldo Royal'. Drew and crew skied it into Marble Cirque, then wrapped around to the Eldo-Triad col and managed a short rap to get back onto the Eldorado Glacier. I had done the same rap a few years prior, getting out of the Cumshot Couloir, and mentioned this to Thomas. Back at the cars, I had told Thomas he could ditch his glacier rope (we'd bring mine), leaving us with only one 30m rope. I didn't quite remember how long the rap was, trying to jog my memory took a while...

We cruised up to the icecap, Thomas was stoked and cranking. He knew that sleep might catch up with him, at some point, but wanted to rally a big day. I had caffeine pills in my first aid kit, just in case. We were atop the icecap by 9AM and motoring. The snow had been firm and consolidated on the climb up but now atop the icecap it was feeling a little more wintry. Hmm...do we go for Klawatti? We looked over, waffling. We tossed aroud a few more ideas, possibly the McAllister or Klawatti glaciers, but as we kept moving over towards Klawatti the snow got better (firmer, more corn like) and we were psyched. Let's stick with it.

We skinned over to the base of the face, walking right past the Swan Song Couloir. Dude, that's is NOT in. Looking up, we were quite impressed by Hummel, Simpson, and Ashton...proud send. We transitioned to booting at the base of the face and made easy progress up towards the summit. The position of Klawatti is amazing, centrally located amongst all the peaks. We couldn't keep our eyes off the north sides of Forbidden and Torment. That NW Face of Torment really doesn't seem to go clean, anymore...maybe in a huge snow year. We gazed over at the NE Buttress of Forbidden, which our buddy Nick had skied days prior...proud send.

Atop Klawatti, we ate some snacks and readied to ski back down. There was a strong west wind, which we felt was favorable for our linkup plan, giving us a little more wiggle room with the southwest couloir. I kept trying to jog my memory about the rap off Triad-Eldo col...did we have two rad lines? I remember there being a shitty rock we slung...did we use a quad? The more I thought about it, the less confident I was that heading over there with a single rad line and a bunch of double slings was a good idea.

We skied great corn down the south face of Klawatti. Thomas went first as I smashed the shutter, getting him with Forbidden and Torment in the background. We skied down the face then skier's left along a bench system that brought us down to the Inspiration Glacier. Smooth, big corn turns, the taste of spring in the Cascades.

Stoke was high on the Inspiration as we transitioned to skins. Thomas popped a caffeine pill and plugged in earbuds with some music for the climb back up to the icecap. We motored up, making quick work of the climb. Dude, let's do Eldo, Thomas proposed.

We talked through timelines, and the rappel. Both of us had been thinking the same thoughts about the rap; we both thought it was more aesthetic and cleaner to ski out to Marble and skin to the Triad-Eldo col, but going into the rap with one rope that late in the day seemed very committing. We had taken photos of the saddle from Roush Divide earlier in the day and there did look like one spot you could downclimb, but downclimbing steep snow around 3PM on a solar aspect because we couldn't make a rap sounded just plain dumb. We agreed that booting out of the couloir was the less committing option and that we should approach the line with the mindset of 'we only ski this if we feel comfortable booting out'. We set 2PM as the latest we'd want to drop, given the winds and cloud cover we had, and agreed to be very mindful of overhead hanging snow in the couloir when looking at the line. I tried to get cell service, and managed to at the top of Eldo. I pulled up my trip report...welp, we had 2x30 meters dude, that's a no go. Sometimes it's nice when the option isn't even there for you to be dumb.

We topped out Eldo in a cloud, still psyched. We saw a booter coming out of the NW Ice Couloir...hmmm. Thomas insisted on skinning to the summit...take that knife edge!

We skied down the NE Face of Eldo then wrapped around to the south side. In a fat year, it'd be sweet to ski right off the summit, down the south face, towards the southwest couloir, into Marble Cirque...mega!

We briefly threw on skins and mosied across the flat, football field over to the southwest couloir. Peering in, the line was not as steep as we thought and plenty clean. Dude, it looks great. We liked not seeing much snow on the rocks and little debris in the couloir; we were atop at 1:45PM, meeting our time cutoff. Time to go. I perched atop a rock, wanting to get a cool vantage point of Thomas skiing the couloir.

Thomas linked turns all the way down the couloir, looking good. Next, my turn. I followed suit, finding good corn with little (but some) sluffing. Thomas pulled out after the couloir opened up to the broad fan, where the returns became diminishing. Time to get out of here. It'd be really sweet to take it further into Marble Creek...just gotta bring enough rope.

We cranked back up the couloir on climber's right, finding easy booting. There were a few snow chunks that started to fall off the climber's left-hand cliffs, but nothing huge. Before long we were back, atop the icecap. Fuck yeah, dude. We ate a snack atop, gazing out at the Cascades.

We clicked into skis, stoked to ski corn on the Eldorado Glacier back towards the car. Maaaaaybe that was a bit too hopeful; the top few hundred were great then moooooosh. Bummer.

We skied back to our shoes, atop the boulderfield, then mosied back to the car. I was quite psyched to have La Croix and snacks at the car. Both Thomas and I were stoked on the day, ready to head home.