Eldorado Peak

Eldorado Peak (8,868ft)

Aaron approaching camp, with the summit in the background

June 19-20, 2015

Eric, Ana, Aaron

I had just gotten back from climbing Pico Turquino in Cuba and had a two-week gap in Seattle before I left for another mountaineering expedition in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Aaron and Ana were up for some climbing, so we decided to climb Eldorao Peak in North Cascades National Park.

On Friday morning we left town and picked up an overnight permit at the Marblemount ranger station. We drove to the Eldorado parking

Hiking up from Cascade River

lot, packed up, and headed out. There’s no official trail up Eldorado, but it is popular enough that there is a pretty well-established, though unmaintained, climbers trail up the route.

From the parking lot we crossed Cascade River on a fallen log, then picked up the climbers trail in the woods and started ascending. The ascent was very steep, and we eventually reached a talus field at the edge of treeline. We carefully crossed the talus, then picked up the trail again to a large flat area in meadows. We called this area marmot camp, because a few people were camping there and a fat marmot was perched on a rock surveying all the activity.

From there we crossed over a ridge to the next drainage climbers right, then ascended snow slopes to the top of the Eldorado Glacier. We crossed a flat plateau and made it to our campsite on the east ridge of Eldorado. Aaron and Ana set out their tent on a flat rocky surface and I laid out my bivy sack. I found some running water nearby, and used the privy, which I’d heard backpacker magazine rated as having one of the best privy views in the country (I’d agree).

On the summit ridge

We went to bed early, and were woken up early when the sun rose at 4:30am.

From camp we roped up and made a quick ascent up the Inspiration Glacier. We weaved around a few crevasses, then walked along the knife edge snow ridge to reach the summit.

Another group was right behind us, so we carefully downclimbed to let them pass, then walked back to camp. We packed up, then hiked across the plateau and glissaded down the Eldorado Glacier. Back down on the talus slopes we encountered many other hikers coming up, some to camp and some as a day trip. We got back to the car by early afternoon and then made it back to Seattle that night.

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