FYI!!

Date: October 23, 2018 
Contact: Katy Hooper 

Cascade River Road will close to all traffic at milepost 18, five miles before the trailhead, beginning Thursday, October 25, 2018. Cascade River Road sustained a considerable amount of damage following storms, heavy rains and flooding around the 2017 Thanksgiving holiday. 

Crews will work to install an 8-foot culvert, which will take a minimum of 2 weeks, weather dependent. The aquatics friendly culvert will help preserve the integrity of the stream and the road. 

Cascade Pass is one of the most popular destination hikes in North Cascades National Park Service Complex. The trailhead is located approximately 23 miles from the junction of the Cascade River Road and Highway 20. 

For information on alternative hikes in the park, call the Wilderness Information Center at 360-854-7245.

Approach

My friend Erin, and I went for a two-day approach of Eldorado peak, and we got lucky with nice weather and good trail conditions! First off, the real route-finding crux of the approach really is within the first hundred feet of the road with log crossings over the Cascade River. While there are cairns roughly marking the logs to cross, I would suggest referring to buritoburito's trip report on May 27, 2018. They have pictures and descriptions which made it so that we didn't even have to search very hard - so thank you buritoburito! Once you cross these logs, and you find the trailhead sign, the path is pretty straightforward, albeit STEEP until the boulderfeilds. Once you are at the boulderfields, the "path" isn't too straightforward, and there are cairns speckled throughout the fields. Here, there isn't really a "right" way up, you'll get to the right spot no matter which cairns you follow! We found it nicer to follow the cairn trail to the climbers right of the fields however, as this "trail" would occasionally become a dirt path every once in a while - which we appreciated! As for water sources, the first one we encountered this time of year was a waterfall at apx. 5,000 ft. which was just at the top of the boulderfields (see pic below) but after this, there was plenty of water on the rest of the approach. Getting across the ridge was pretty straightforward, with now snow this time of year, and well marked with cairns. It was at about 6,000ft. Once you are over the ridge, the "trail" is again pretty nondescript, but if you stick to the climbers right side of the area, and follow the cairns that are there, you'll be in good shape for the glacier portion. My climbing partner and I ended up camping at 6,400ft. due to it being late in the day, however this seemed to work well for us, as this put us just below the glacier with lots of water sources. The only difficulty was finding a flat spot, but after some searching we found a decent spot and slept well. 

Summit

We decided that for this climb we didn't need a super early alpine start, so we got up at 4:30am and started walking just as dawn was breaking. We stuck to climbers right of the glacier, and the route was really straightforward and smooth. Nothing really notable until the ridge, where we chose to stay on snow as long as we could, and had to cross onto the rocks just below an opening crevasse. There are plenty of places to cross over. The ridge was very stable and felt very secure for both the ascent and descent. (See pic below). We brought pickets for protection, and used them mostly for peace of mind on the ridge, but really not incredibly necessary. No notable crevasse crossings either (only two little slivers before high camp). 

Overall a great day in the mountains, which left us sore, tired, happy, and in awe that we live in such a beautiful state! 

(Side note: I did download a GPS route from summitpost (see link below) and this was accurate and reassuring when we needed it!)

Currently there are a lot of mosquitos down low.  When you come to the boulder field if you cross the field completely and go up the side you are able to stay on more dirt with less boulder hopping.  This made it easier on the way down.   Waterfall currently available at the top of the boulder field.  Beyond this, route finding becomes slightly difficult and you need to stay left along the ridge, and eventually go up the ridge to cross the at the gulley.  Then stay right.  and go up the snowfield a short distance then onto rock until you are in the upper snow field.  once up the snow field cross the glacier to the high camp.  Looks like an island in the snow and there is a very direct walk with minimal to no crevasse danger at this time.  For the summit continue up around the rocks to the left.  Due to the Bergschrund and crevasses, we opted to go up the ridge until we were around all this, then cross the snow to the knife edge and onto the summit.  Unfortunately, it was quite overcast with limited visibility so we did not get to enjoy the wonderful views.  On the upside, we were the only climbers that day so we had the high camp and summit to ourselves.

Update on trail conditions....

Biting flies and mosquitoes first couples miles through forest and across boulder fields. There’s water to refill bottles a about a mile and 1/2 in. 

Gorgeous high alpine meadows above boulder fields. 

A couple small snow fields to cross once down in the basin before you get to the base of Inspiration Glacier. Not much crevasse concern on Inspiration right now. (We just stayed right) Once you crest the top of the glacier there’s a flat sun cupped glacier basin to cross and then you’re at high camp. Took us 7 hours from car to get to high camp. 

Heading up Eldorado there’s one area with large crevasses and snow bridges we didn’t want to cross so we went over onto the rocks for a small section. 

Summit experience is like nothing else I’ve done with the knife-edge exposure, very cool!

First of all I want to say thanks to previous reporter burritoburrito! It was really easy to find right log crossing and not to spend time to find it out.

We started from Seattle at 5:30 Saturday morning and came to Marbelmount ranger station at 7:45. I called to ranger station day before and rangers confirmed that they have 2 permit available for Eldorado. We were fourth in the permit line and were lucky to get second permit to Eldorado.

Started from parkin lot around 9:30. As previous report mentioned trail starts from log crossing, there is nothing tricky you just have to be careful with heavy backpack. Next you meet trail sign which says that trail unmantained. Then climb aka mailbox old trail begins, very similar. Trail is very good visible and easy to follow, lots of fallen trees on the trail.

We reached boulder field aroud 11 am. Weather was not perfect that day and boulders were wet from drizzle, we climbed it very carefully following by cairns. On the way down we realized that climbed part of the boulder field not by "official" trail but by our own route, it is so easy to miss. Finally we reached end of the field. Here we crossed stream by snow bridge which melting fast, on our way back we crossed it by stones.

From here snow begins, we climbed it up in total whiteout. In one hour or so we reached the ridge which you need to cross via gully it was not complicated but you need to be careful. Once you crossing this ridge you getting to basing area. Here at the glacier begging we met few other groups, they were roping up. We decided to set camp here around 6300-6400 since these groups was going further for camp.

Camp, food, sleep. As I told before it was total whiteout around and we hoped to get better weather next day. I came out from tent around 9:30 pm and seen great picture. All fog went away, clouds wes lying in basin area below me and peask were rising up!

Waked up at 5am and first that we seen was clear sky and mountains around! At 6 am we headed up to the summit. Snow was very good for crampons walk, weather was perfectсt, pure joy climb. In hour or so we reached main camp at 7500, people were packing tents and camp stuff, they summited early morning. Right after camp we turned left to the summit and climbed it in 2 hours. There is huge crevasse between 7500 camp and summit, trail goes between this huge and small one, but snow bridge looks good. Final ridge to the summit is great but little bit sketchy, not right place for fall, just be careful.

We took some photos, snacks and headed down. Reached our camp in one hour. Little bit of rest, food, packing camp and going down.

Views were so great and so spectacular, can't remember when I was so impressed with mountain views like here! Maybe first time at Vasper? Maybe! All the way from out camp to the summit and back we were seen Forbidden peak, it is so great, I took hundred photos of it! Cascade pass also gave us great vies on thy way down!

Great climb! Definitely need to do it again someday!

PS. My buddy lost my yellow midland radio, if somebody found it I will glad to get it back for some reward.