Eldorado Peak/Inspiration Glacier

The day before starting, at dinner on the way to the trailhead we overheard another table talking about their day on Eldorado. We talked to them for some beta, and we surprised to hear that they unroped for the descent because of a "solid boot pack." None of us thought that was a good idea, which was the right call given what happened during our descent. Arriving at the trailhead we checked out the river crossing. It was helpful to see it in person before having to navigate across it with headlamps early the next morning. With how fast the water was raging, it was a good reminder to asses our energy  levels  during the day, as we'd have to cross it again in the evening, which would prove more dangerous if we were to fatigued. Mentally or physically.

While most C2C groups started at 3am,  we left the cars a little later than our planned 3:30 start after a discussion about one member of our team just realizing that they didn't have their ice axe. We decided to proceed (with caution) after deciding 1) they would use trekking poles the entire time, and crampons for any steep snow for stability, 2) they would be at the front of the rope team so that the odds are in our favor for arresting a crevasse fall and 3) we'd reassess at any steep terrain, which we didn't expect to see until the short knife edge section of the summit.

The log crossing went smoothly and we quickly made our way up the climbers trail, gaining elevation fast. Despite the chilly morning we were all hot from the steep terrain. In the boulder field we ignored the kairns, for the most part, and enjoyed some fun scrambling. We did meet up with the trail that snaked from left to right up the boulder field a few times. Had we been on it longer we would have saved some time. As the rocks transitioned to mud and snow we topped off our water, filling up at the first waterfall we found to be sure we didn't miss our chance (Although there were one or two more after the fact).

As the snow coverage became more consistent we stashed our approach shoes under some rocks to hide them from any of the salt-seeking mountain goats we saw prowling for a lick. We continued north for a bit after dawning our mountaineering boots, then made our way up the ridge and through the cloud cover to get our first glimpse of incredible views to come. Once we had taken in the sights and prepared for the now sunny day ahead, we traversed the ridge a bit to far, walking past the gully used to cross over to west side of the ridge at about 6200'.

Now on harder snow we put on our crampons on and continued north towards the glacier. It was not too long until we found ourselves at the point just before the glacier that we wanted to rope up (6500'). We only saw one open crevasse on the Eldorado Glacier, far to the west of the boot pack. Otherwise it was smooth sailing up towards Inspiration Glacier.

At 7500' the terrain flattened out for about half a mile, and we got a great view of the top and could scout out the small cornices at the summit. The following ridge that takes you to the summit was where we started to see some small open crevasses near the boot pack. The sun was warming up the snow but we decided to keep our crampons on. This proved to be a great decision as the knife edge and summit were pretty hard, and the piece-of-mind that spikes in the ground provided were well worth it on the steep slope.

We reached the summit just after 11am, and hung out for a bit before descending back the way we came. We didn't stay too long as the cornices we saw on the way up, while not huge, were on all our minds given then narrow the summit. Just off the summit on the ridge line headed down, one person on our rope punched through a small crack with one leg up to their thigh. A real reminder that a solid boot pack does not mean there is nothing hiding out below. The rest of the descent was uneventful. The snow was slippery but the terrain wasn't too steep so we didn't have any issue.

Once we got back to the dirt, with our approach shoes back on, the real test of mental strength began. Despite following the trail we mostly ignored on the way up, the knee-crushing boulder field felt like it took twice as long as it actually did. Then the trail afterwards was slippery with loose dirt and pebbles. Luckily we still had plenty of energy to safely cross the log bridge back (which was harder to find again than we expected) and the water level hadn't increased much since we started.

We were back at the cars just after 5:30pm, about two hours later than we expected.