Eldorado Peak - East Ridge

We climbed Eldorado in August. Our plan to climb the West Arete - a long technical rock climb - was foiled by the weather, so we ended up just hiking up the standard route. This blog entry is written way after the fact, so here are a few pics from the trip.

The total elevation gain is something like 6,600 feet straight up the side of the valley. Here's Michelle in the talus fields a little ways up:


The north face of Johannesburg (John and I climbed the rib on the left a few weeks later):


Getting above tree line - Mt. Torment, Mt. Boston, and Sahale Peak in the distance:






First view of Eldorado Peak - the peak in the center


Michelle climbing up the Eldorado Glacier:






Big glacier:


Cool clouds:


Looking over at the west side of Eldorado:


Mt. Forbidden


We camped up on the east shoulder of the peak, then the next morning headed down to check out the route:


Here we met our good friends Jim and Marlene (we were supposed to be camped together, but I'll spare you the details of the mistake).


We decided the weather didn't look to good so we hiked back up the the standard route on the east shoulder and continued to the top.

Mt. Baker:


Marlene and Michelle:


Nasty clouds:


Jim coming up the final summit ridge:


Marlene and Michelle




On the summit!