Ellinor from the North

[arlen]

Having often ogled the dramatic northeast couloir on trips up Mt Ellinor, we took advantage of favorable conditions (likelihood of consolidated snow, clear road to Jefferson Creek) and set out to climb it from the north. Our general plan was to approach up the valley past Lake Ellinor, to the base of the north ridge, and climb up the couloir to the base of the summit block.

 

We left a car at the Ellinor lower trailhead and started the approach from FS road 2401 at the west-most crossing of Jefferson Creek (totally clear of snow to that point). Some deciduous bushes were starting to bud, but the brush was minimal--that is, a little better than penetrable. We mostly stayed on the snow at the base of the cliffy north and northwest sides of Mount Washington, contouring through some inhospitable slide alder and stream debris, and eventually across the creek onto the clearer east-facing slope of Jefferson Ridge.

 

A pretty large block with old-growth trees on it juts into the valley from the ridge; the creek flows to the west of it but we took the snowy slope over the east side of the obstacle and down into a scenic snowbowl below Lake Ellinor. The lake itself is still frozen, with some interesting fractures running across it.

 

From the meadow above the lake, Mt. Ellinor's north buttress obscures the actual summit, and A Peak isn't obvious on the ridgeline to Mount Washington. Rather than risk going too far east, we climbed along the west side of the north buttress and up a west-facing gully that divides the buttress. That steepened to a 3rd class chute; at the top it splits into 2 cols that look into the southeast couloir. We took the upper one, descended about 40 feet of 4th class rock to the west side of the couloir and climbed about 200 feet to the ridge and up to the summit.

 

It turned out that the couloir is hidden from the north approach by the north buttress; had we gone around its east flank we would have been looking more or less straight up the couloir. Going up the buttress made for a more interesting--and probably safer--climb. We descended via the bobsled run and down to the lower trailhead. Total time car to summit was about 5 hours.

 

[Sparky]

That was, my friend, the best trip report I have ever read. I could practically feel my quads tighten and cramp. I was THERE man. Seriously-a great report!

[Noway]

Unbelievable, you weren't sprayed by someone, especially Sparky.

[David_Parker]

That couloir is a great ski. I did two laps in it many years ago!

[arlen]

quote:

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Originally posted by Noway:

Unbelievable, you weren't sprayed by someone, especially Sparky.

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I hear ya--I considered avataring to post such an un-contentious TR. Sparky's OK with me. He's a cool guy to climb with in fact.

 

I neglected to mention that snowshoes were needed on the snowslopes, but one could stay in the stream debris and not need them.