It was early August, 1997. The snowpack had been extensive in the Cascades that year, and there was still a lot more snow than normal at the high elevations. We were planning to climb Eldorado Peak via the Sibley Creek approach, but I did warn Toby it would be better to try it as a three day climb...

It takes a solid three hours to get from Seattle to the trailhead, so we decided to meet as early as we could stomach. We met at the 65th street park and ride at O-Early-Hundred (5 am) and headed north. Toby Young drove Paul Guatelli and Clare Parfitt, I drove Mike Whelan. Toby had to (ha ha) follow me. I later heard many comments about warp speed. Chris was going to meet us at the trailhead at 8 am.

"This is a classic alpine ridge traverse, with great views, fun exposure, and only class 2 scrambling. It is well worth a day hike..."

We checked into the ranger station at Marblemount, and found that Chris had registered us for camping spots in the Triad area. We really needed a camping spot in Eldorado Glacier, but when Chris had tried to get one, they were full.

The ranger, a very pretty woman named Val, altered our permit so we could camp on the glacier. She said the computerized system was down and that their should have been more permits allowed for the glacier area.

With this reprieve, we headed to the trail.

We met Chris and started off in good time. I expected to be at Sibley Pass around 11:30, but we were there before 11. We continued up the beautiful ridge traverse, and ate lunch on a rock about 12:30. This is a classic alpine ridge traverse, with great views, fun exposure, and only class 2 scrambling. It is well worth a day hike.

After a snow traverse we came to the spot where my group had camped two years ago, at the top of a gully. According to Beckey, this is the correct gully to descend. According to Nelson, it is not. We looked for Nelson's route, but decided to take this gully after all.

"Ordinarily this would be good news, except that the snow had a hole in it halfway down. One slip and you have a nasty fall..."

Some third class downclimbing was complicated by a big chunk of snow in the middle of the gully. Ordinarily this would be good news, except that the snow had a hole in it halfway down. One slip and you have a nasty fall. So we scrambled some exposed rock on the side of the snow.

Then I pioneered a route under a snow tunnel by trying to lower my pack and dropping it. I had to climb down to get it, and ended up going under this tunnel.

Everybody but Paul followed me. Paul downclimbed to the lower snowbank and climbed onto it.

Eventually we all got onto the snow (with our packs). Paul did a long snow traverse at the top of a little bowl. I finally got my nerve up to plunge step this, and dropped down to the bottom of the bowl. I beat Paul to the next notch, even though I had to climb back up.

The others sort of followed Paul, but with several arrested falls. This was to become a theme for the trip, unfortunately.

Then we climbed up to a notch following a snow finger. As I climbed it, I discovered it was about 10 feet tall on either side, and it narrowed at one spot to about a foot wide by four feet long. Kind of like a 45 degree steep balance beam made of snow. We all climbed it, but I noticed a rock bypass that looked viable.

At the top of that we reassessed our goals. It was 4 pm, and we were pretty certain we would not make it to the Eldorado glacier that night. Paul wanted to camp there and try for the peak with day packs the next day. I wanted to move closer.

"Clare suddenly said, "Marmot's got your ice axe." A marmot had snuck up and grabbed the wrist loop of Toby's ice axe..."

While we were talking about this, Clare suddenly said, "Marmot's got your ice axe." A marmot had snuck up and grabbed the wrist loop of Toby's ice axe. It started to run away with the axe, and Toby chased it. It would have gotten away, except that the axe head did not fit into the marmot hole. Toby grabbed the handle and pulled. The marmot had the wrist loop between his teeth and pulled back, growling. Finally he let go and Toby got his axe back.

After this, I had an easier time convincing people to vote for moving on and not camping there.

We figured it would take us two hours to traverse to the next saddle, but it actually only took an hour and a half. Once again, though, the steep snow slowed us down. Many people took falls which required long run-outs to finally arrest.

When we got to the next saddle, we decided to camp. It would have been at least two more hours to get to the glacier, and we were tired physically and mentally.

Everyone else started making camp while I went ahead and scouted the obvious route. I found a great view of Eldorado, but I also found that the obvious route was impassible.

That night we decided we would not summit, so we would get up when we got up.

"Paul's way was quicker and easier, but I think we were all starting to suffer nerves from continuous exposure..."

The next morning Paul went up and looked at the view I had described. Then everybody else followed him while I melted water. When everybody realized just how far we were from the glacier, the group quickly formed a consensus for going home.

Once again we tried to find the route described in Nelson's book, so that we could avoid Marmot Pass and the 3rd class snow/rock gully. However, we ended up more sure than ever that Nelson's description is wrong.

On the way back through Marmot Pass, I decided to take the rock bypass rather than downclimb the foot-wide snow finger. The group split 3-3 on that. Nobody fell either way, thankfully.

Then we went back to the gully. I didn't feel like I wanted to climb the rock face when I could just use the snow tunnel route we had descended, so I went that way. Paul climbed the face, but everybody else went my way. Paul's way was quicker and easier, but I think we were all starting to suffer nerves from continuous exposure.

After some difficult scrambling (somehow it had been easier for me to downclimb this gully than to upclimb it, no doubt because of the nervousness already mentioned) we reached the ridge top again.

From there it was pretty easy hiking back, though two members of the group moved very slowly. The exhaustion and exposure had caught up to them, and they took about an hour longer to walk down this ridge than we had taken to come up it the day before.

We reached Sibley Pass at about 6, and the final party members came out at the trailhead about 8:30 or so.

This is a scenic and challenging approach route to a scenic and challenging mountain. Only a really fast, small, and experienced group can do this in two days. The approach is definitely more challenging than the actual climb, but is well worth it for the experience.

— Mike Garrison, MountainZone.com Pubster