This was a relatively uneventful trip into the beautiful Cascade Pass high country. Originally Dennis and I had toyed with the idea of doing the route in a day - after all, one of the best ways to climb light in the alpine is to make a two-day trip into a day trip. Eldorado is a perfect candidate for this: a non-technical route with a manageable and benign approach. Jim Nelson calls the approach a Grade IV, though, and he's usually right on, so we were a bit hesitant. In the end, we decided that a two day trip was a fine idea. The weather forecast was excellent (in fact, the best weekend forecast yet of the entire year). Sometimes, we climb to relax.
We only left the trailhead at 11:00 am, after a fiasco with a flat tire and no spare. My oversight. So much for an early start. Nevertheless, we were going light and blasted up the approach in about 4-5 hours to Eldorado glacier. We set up camp on Eldorado Glacier next to two guys from Pullman and enjoyed the afternoon. By this time the snow was soft so we decided not to summit. Had we any doubts about the forecast, we would have gone up and gotten out of there. As it was, it was nice to be in the alpine.
In the morning we slept in and then got up and tagged the summit in an hour from camp. The view from the top is truly one of the best in the Cascades! To the South the summits of Cascade Pass: (right to left) Sahale and Boston close together, Forbidden and Buckner close behind, and finally the black pyrimidal shape of Goode, rising evilly in the distance. To the North are Shuksan and the peaks of the Picket Range. To the West is a solid 7000 foot drop into the valleys of the Cascade foothills near Marblemount and Rockport.
Our decent was speeded by our use of snowshoes. From high camp we lost elevation quickly plunge stepping with snowshows, while we watched other climbers wallowing and postholing. We got back to the car in several hours.
