By Andy Dewey
Day 1 (July 21):
I’d connected with this gang of Everett Mountaineers online because we all had the same goal in mind; a traverse of the Eldorado range. I’d never met any of them before, but they all turned out to be a great bunch of guys. Eldorado Peak is one that I had wanted to climb forever but had put off climbing it until I could go in and do the whole traverse. Finally I had the partners and time to do it, and the weather looked to be awesome. We all met up and carpooled up to the trailhead Wednesday morning. I won’t bore you with the route details because you all know how it goes. The route was in great shape and we hit snow about 5400’, just as you open up into alpine terrain. We roped up once we started up the Eldorado Glacier although there were no visible crevasses or moats of concern. Once we crested onto the Inspiration Glacier, I was blown away by the spectacular views!
We decided to press onward and make camp at Klawatti Col. It took two hours to cross the Inspiration Glacier to the col just west of Klawatti Peak. This glacier is immense! There were a few crevasses to navigate, but we stayed high and this avoided most of them. We were in to camp at 7pm, it had taken us 10.5 hours from the trailhead, but we were taking our time. The plan was to get an alpine start the next day and climb Klawatti.
Day 2 (July 22):
Sometimes unfortunately things don’t go according to plan. We awoke early to a complete whiteout. Despite the good weather forecast, it continued to rain on and off all day and the wind was blowing like crazy. We never saw any more than a few hundred feet from our tent all day. So we hunkered down and spent nearly 30 hours in the tents to wait out the storm. All we could do was keep our fingers crossed that things would improve. I opened my pack and a little vole jumped out right in my face. He’d been into some of my food, so we had to resort to burying the food. It was surprising to see varmints on our little island of rock at 7,800’. We were also periodically visited by a hummingbird!
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Day 3 (July 23):
We awoke at 4am to clear skies and gorgeous weather! We re-arranged plans and decided to go for Eldorado first. Doug and Andy B. had already climbed it, but how could you pass it up on such a fine day? We left camp at 5:45am and traversed back across the Inspiration Glacier. Rather than go all the way back to the east ridge, I kicked us some impressive steps straight up the steep NE face. We were up in two hours. The knife-edge had a nice track, but we threw in a couple pickets for good measure. The views were outstanding but it was quite windy so we didn’t linger.
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We made a quick descent then crossed over the saddle and onto the McAllister Glacier. The next objective was Dorado Needle. It was a fun couple of easy 5th class pitches up to the summit, including a cheval move. Snow & moats were not an issue, it was in good shape.
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Back to camp for a break, and then we were off to check out Klawatti.
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The south route on Klawatti is up a snow gully and when it melts out later in the season there are some moat issues. We were able to get over them okay but stayed roped and placed pickets as we went. Sliding into one of them would ruin your day. There is some loose rock to be careful of above the moats, we had some close calls. Then it was just a steep snow climb followed by a talus scramble to the top. The descent was equally as tedious, but we were back to camp in good time. What a day! It always feels great to get three in one day.
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Day 4 (July 24):
We woke up at 4am again to a beautiful morning, and started on our long journey north. Crossing from the McAllister to Klawatti Glacier requires a short downclimb or rappel. Then we were on our way to Austera Peak. There is a direct route up a chockstone gully that looks harder than Beckey’s class 3 rating. We opted for an exposed and somewhat loose class 3/4 scramble around a ledge on the right side. We stayed roped the entire time. The summit is quite small and exposed, but the views were awesome. After a quick descent back to the glacier, we ran into the first group of people we’d seen in 4 days; a group of Seattle Mounties doing the traverse from Thunder Creek to Cascade River.
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Getting over to Primus Peak from here is a pain. To bypass the east ridge of Austera it’s a mile and a half detour and loss of 1400’ to reach the North Klawatti Glacier. This 6840’ bench on the east ridge is an AWESOME camp if one was doing the traverse from Thunder Creek. Once on the North Klawatti Glacier I noticed a very steep couloir that may allow a direct route earlier in the season when there isn’t a moat there. The glacier had a bunch of crevasses but they were mostly closed up. Primus was an easy scramble; we were on top about noon. It has a broad summit with excellent views. We decided to skip Tricouni even though we’d planned to do it. It looked more involved than we’d expected and we were content with what we’d done. Now we had the long trek back to camp with the slog back up the Klawatti Glacier.
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Austera Towers & Peak and North Klawatti Glacier from Primus Peak. You have to go ALL the way around on the far left.
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Primus summit panorama. Black, Logan, Goode.
As we climbed back over to the McAllister Glacier, we saw an odd sight; someone walking along with an enormous red balloon. The Mounties group had set up camp adjacent to us at the col when apparently this big balloon came floating by they went and chased it down.
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Day 5 (July 25):
The hike out. Nothing exciting happened; being Sunday there was an army of people on Eldorado. Lots of marmots lazing around in the sun. I saved someone’s trekking poles from getting the handles chewed off by one. We made good time back to the cars and got back for burgers at the Marblemount Diner.
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