This is a beautiful hike!!
Trip Summary, with more details below:
Road: Passable for low-clearance vehicles, the road has a number of large washboards and it will punish your car a bit.
Bugs: Horse Flies. All over the place. Otherwise not too bad!
Trail: Trail is in good condition all the way up to the glacier. Heavily crevassed at this point, but manageable to find a route through. For the summit push, see notes below.
Other Notes: There are multiple water-sources along the route, pack a filter and save yourself some water weight.
The hike begins from an unmarked parking lot, 19.5 miles down the Cascade River Road (be advised, while the first 10 miles is paved, the last 9.5 is not and there are potholes and large washboards on the road). From the parking lot, travel down the road you just drove down for about 200-300 feet to find a hikers trail on the side of the road which uses a large log to cross the creek. Continue following the log until you reach the trailhead marker for Eldorado Peak Wilderness.
The first part of the hike is a steep climb through the woods… I didn’t have a GPS on me, so I can’t account for the mileage. There are also no trail markers, or identifiable features of any kind to inform you of your progress. You’ll emerge from the trees into a large boulder field at just over 4,000 feet of elevation. From here, choose your best route through the boulders (trending up and to the right). At the edge of this first boulder field you will encounter some brush for a few minutes, only to be deposited into a much larger boulder field. Repeat the same steps as before, trending up and to the right (the trail appears and re-appears throughout the field, don’t worry about it – your goal is to cross the entire boulder field).
Upon exiting the boulder field, you walk through brush for a few minutes until reaching a small waterfall (1st water-source), continue past the waterfall and up the hill until you reach a large and open valley. From here the route is simple, you aim for a notch in the ridgeline directly in front of you. En route to this ridgeline you will encounter a 2nd water-soruce and another opportunity to re-fill your water. Upon gaining the ridgeline, trend to the left and look for a narrow gully which descends 100-200 feet into the basin on the far side.
In later months (like now for instance) your goal is to trend far right and stay close to the ridgeline. The glacier is heavily crevassed and the right side has the least amount of ice/crevasse danger (on your way up to the glacier you encounter your 3rd water-source). As you continue up the glacier (staying mostly to the right side), you will come to a large ice wall just below a crest with numerous crevasses (avoid it by traveling either left or right doesn’t matter). Upon reaching the top of the crest you will be at the edge of a large bowl, High Camp lies directly across the bowl, at the bottom of the ridgeline on the far-right side – even if your goal is the summit, trend towards and through the camp as that is the route. There is a small (and final) water-source just past the high camp.
Pass through the camp and back onto snow. This time you trend to the left while avoiding large crevasses. You will see glimpses of the summit, but don’t get too excited yet, you have a ways to go.
Here is where the route gets complicated. My team and I walked across two snow bridges (will likely be gone in the next 2 weeks) and elected to utilize the rocky ridge to make our summit attempt. This turned out to be a fortuitous decision as there were no real technical bits along the rocks and it was mostly low level class 3 scrambles all the way up to the summit. From there, we crossed the knife edge from the West side before returning to the rocks for lunch.
Theoretically, the East Ridge trail takes you in the opposite direction, away from the rocks. On our way back down we decided to come down part of the way on the snow, but not knowing what lied beneath us, we ultimately decided to venture back to the boulders where we knew we could get down safely. That said, if you head up about ¾ of a mile from the high camp… staying to the left side, you will come to the lip of a large, impassable crevasse. From here (if staying on the snow is your preference) turn to the right, dip down and under another crevasse, and up around the far side towards the summit on the East side. If you are comfortable with low-level rock scrambles, the rocky ridge route will take you safely to the summit also.
Descend via the route you came up. Let me know if there are questions, cheers!
Route times listed below for reference:
Trailhead Start: 0750
Enter Talus Fields: 0855
Leave Talus Fields: 1003 (small water-source present)
Waterfall on Trail: 1014 (moderate water-source present)
Creek(s) in Basin: 1028 (moderate water-source present)
Gained Ridgeline: 1056
Roush Creek: 1119 (moderate, multiple water-source(s) present)
High Camp: 1300 (multiple tent sites, small water-source present)
Final Water-Source: 1347 (on the rocky ridgeline - near the summit)
Obtained Summit: 1412
Began Descent: 1520
Arrive at TH: 1920
Total Time Up: 6 Hours, 21 Minutes
Time Down: 4 Hours
Comments