Dorado Needle Mountaineering Route, Ram's North Cascade Adventure Camp
Day 2 started with that reddish sky that warns of unsettled weather. Dorado Needle, hidden behind the bulk of Eldorado, had intrigued for years. The glacier (McCalister) was tricky, but the 5.4 knife edge seemed easy. Aaron squeezed it into one pitch and all followed quickly, noting that in such places the rope is not of much function. The joke being that it is for body retrieval. Here the follower must not fall either! The clouds came up from the valley and engulfed us just as we got back on the glacier, from the summit, at 10:30 AM. Having our footprints to follow through the maze of crevasses while in a cloud was.....ah....helpful! We headed over to the base of Klawatti Peak, an island of rock, in a sea of snow and ice. The usual camping spot was still under snow and the pass was windy. We moved over to the south side and set up the tarps on the snow and hunkered down through a midday storm. When it cleared just a bit at 4 PM, we grabbed our weather window and sprinted for the summit. The orange and gray skies, with more clouds flowing up the valleys, motivated us off the peak and back to camp in time for a whiteout.
It would be more than 22 hours before we would have any real viability and then on the side of a different mountain. It rained and sleeted through the evening, night and the whole of the next morning. Our snow floor turned to ice under us and the bit of angle had us sliding out of the shelter regularly. The body stiffened, but the company was good.
Out early. Moraine lake and Mt Forbidden in the background
The man with the big smile. Sonny plays anchorman
Our goal....Dorado Needle on the left. We must descend 500 feet of glacier before the climb. We finish on the right skyline via low 5th class climbing
weaving among huge seracs
clouds a'coming
Crevasses. Beautiful, awing, frightening
looking back at the pass we have descended from. The Needle is behind us and to the right
The summit ridge. The ropes lead up to Aaron somewhere up above on the knife edge
The summit of Dorado Needle. Planning the way off the peak, with storm clouds on the way
10:30 AM and the clouds have engulfed us just as we get off the ridge. Whew! Close one. Ziff does the last man thing off the peak thing
In a cloud. Sonny and Ram contemplate the steep and long traverse amongst the crevasses, in pea soup
Our life line in the storm
Views open and close. On the McCalister Glacier
Klawatti Peak. The tower on the north (left) ridge is called the smokestack
looking back at Eldorado. Far down the left ridge you can barely detect some rock. That was the camp from the night before
Inspiration Glacier and Eldorado. The weather going downhill
Ziff refueling. Forbidden in the background
Johannesberg in front, Glacier peak behind. Clouds flowing up the valley from the coast
Camp is set at the base of Klawatti Peak
Up 40 degree snow slopes, in a weather window
Aaron belays Sonny across the moat
steep snow, leading to the final rocky slopes to...
summit under threatening skies
A sea of clouds rising. Mt Shucksan back left.
rain, sleet, wind, a little of everything