Ellinor-Washington Traverse

[jport]

I'm thinking of taking a small group of teens (with alpine training) up to the Mt. Washington area this spring.

Is it possible to link the two mountains in a day? If so, how would you approach and in what sequence would you climb them?

Any route info. would be helpful.

Thanks.

[dan_forester]

a couple years ago we were on Elinor in the summer & tried to scout out a good traverse over to Washington. We kept getting cliffed out. With a rope and a little gear there would have been better options; I remember seeing what looked like a solid-ish rock ridge (exposed) that I would have tried with a rope.

 

I've heard that the routefinding is more straightforward coming from Mt Washington to Elinor, but I don't have personal knowledge of that.

 

Sounds like a fun idea, looking forward to hearing how it goes!

[mattp]

It is easy to get from one to the other via the back side. There is a gully leading down from Washington just south of the summit block or maybe a little way down the ridge near where the standard route comes from the front side, and another gully leads down from Ellinor just NE of where the south chute tops out. Both are easy to spot from the basin below.

[dan_forester]

that's right where we were, we must have missed the obvious gully I guess.

[jport]

Thanks guys.

After I posted the original message, I went home to find a description in the Climber's Guide to the Olympics.

I'm excited to try it out!

[mattp]

My memory may be a bit off. It looks as if the main gully on that side of Ellinor is a little closer to the summit than where I described.

 

Washington seen from Ellinor:

 

Ellinor seen from Washington

[jport]

Thanks for the photos mattp.

What time of year were those shots taken?

I'm not sure that we'd actually do a true "traverse" along the ridgeline. It looks like the snow slopes below the ridge would be a cruise, eh?

[RJRiha]

If you stay off the ridge proper and stay on the East side of the ridge, it should be pretty cruiser. I did it 2 years ago in very low visibility, and we found our way pretty easily. The only part that may make you think a little is the slope up to A/B/Horses Mouth. There was a monster cornice above that when we were there, and had to cut left up an extremely exposed snow slope.

 

Definitely easiest from Washington to Ellinor. The backside drop off from Washington is either route 11 or 12 (don't have my book handy). That's the easiest, and definitely the fastest route between the two. Up on the ridge is more fun though.