El Dorado Peak, North Couloir. The north face of El Dorado Peak is a hazardous enigma. In October, Dan Cauthorn and I—carrying plenty of noodles and tuna packed in oil—emerged from the depths of the Cascade forest empire to investigate this hidden facet of the “Queen of the Cascade River.” There were no clouds to cause concern. (Still, you never know.) We left our camp below the west face of E1 Dorado at six A.M. and walked toward the Dorado Needle-El Dorado col until we could climb onto the glacier beneath the north face of Eldorado. The elegant and unmistakable couloir required 6 to 8 pitches of frozen snow and water ice between 55° and vertical, finishing on the knife-edged summit arete. On the summit at one P.M., Cauthorn summed it all up: “Good climb, good climb ... I think so, don’t you?” (III).

William Pilling