Inspiration Traverse, a single day ascent of Eldorado and Klawatti* Peaks

*Possible first winter ascent and descent of Klawatti's southwest ridge and south face...from the top.

March 10, 2004

Who:  Jason, Josh, Sky and Sam (and Justin*)

With a midnight departure from Seattle, sleep before suffering was not an option.  We drove the Cascade River Road to just past mile 18 and soon found ourselves crossing the river and gaining vertical.  Despite patchy snow, we managed to stay on the climber's trail...mostly.  At the top of the woods, most people know the next section of the climb to be a less-than-fun romp through 1,500 feet of boulders.  The boulders were buried and we were soon skinning.  By 10:30am we were at the top of the Glacier and ready to begin the long traverse to the South Face of Klawatti. 

The Inspiration Glacier has definitely got to be one of the most majestic glaciers in the lower 48.  It affords the alpinist with a commanding view of peaks you could spend your entire life trying to climb and only touch the tip of the iceberg.

At the base of Klawatti's south face, the sun had baked the slope just enough to relax, but not enough to leave the crampons in the pack.

By about 1pm, we had reached the top and were setting our sights on the ski descent.  The slope was a fairly consistent 40° and was very buttery. 

Klawatti was the primary goal for the day and a climb and ski of Eldorado was certainly in the cards if we had the time and energy on the way back.  We were in pretty good shape time wise, but by this time we were all pretty wiped out.  The reality was that we had to go right by it on the way out, so what's an extra 45 minutes of skinning up to the top?  I think Sky said it best, "if we don't, we'll wish we had tomorrow."  The snow had started to firm up a bit, but the skiing was still great.

The snow down on the Eldorado Glacier was best suited for long GS turns in the late afternoon sun.  A quick sidestep up the ridge and we were heading for the trail.  Ugh!  It was hard on the knees but was over relatively quickly. 

The car-to-car time for this extravaganza:  under 16 hours

Here's the video:  (Windows Media 9.1MB, 3:42)

Click here for Jason's version of events

Click here for Sky's version of events

*Click here for Justin's version of events

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