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Trip Report    

Glacier Climb - Eldorado Peak/Inspiration Glacier

Successful winter overnight climb of Eldorado.

Ian Lauder Ian Lauder
March 26, 2018
  • Road recommended for high clearance only

  • Was able to get 2 4x4s about 1.5 miles from the trailhead with heavy duty chains.

    Water was low at the stream crossing, we mostly waded across.

    New blowdowns to navigate around on the trail up.   Once at the boulder field its pretty solidly covered, no punching through.  

    The knife edge ridge was deep waist deep powder, not corniced but no easy way to break a trail up with the time available.  And was too soft to hold pickets.  So we called it a success at that point.

     

     


Needed high clearance 4x4s to get up the trail. Smaller vehicles could get within 6 miles of the trialhead. We got about 1.5 miles with heavy duty chains and still got stuck. Once dug out and turned around we unpacked and put showshoes on for the rest of the road walk.

By 10:30am we were walking. First 2000ft gain put us at the base of the first boulder field and put snowshows back on. No issues with breaking through the boulders, just another couple thousand feet gain straight up where we piched camp around 4pm at 5800ft.

Up the next morning at 4am, on the trail at 5:30am. Took 6 hours to break trail up to the base of the summit ridge another ~3400ft gain.

Snow conditions were good, breaking trail calf to knee deep with a hard crust. Didn't have avi conditions that were of concern, although we took avi gear.