[TR] Mt. Washington - 1up and 2 down 2/22/2009

[mountainsloth]

Trip: Mt. Washington - 1ish and 2 (descent)

 

Date: 2/22/2009

 

Trip Report:

For one reason or another, snow, fog, big heads, Salz and I have been shut down on Mt. Washington on winter attempts too many times.

With this year's snow conditions we decided this was our time to summit. So this past Friday we boarded a ferry from Seattle to make yet another trip into the SE Olympics hoping for a smooth ride up a mountain we have come to dread.

We expected little to no snow on the logging road to the east faces of Ellinor and Washington but found quite a bit about a mile and a half up the road.

The shit hit the fan early as we quickly bottomed out my impreza into the hard road snow and spent the next 3 hours trying to get it out. In the past I thought the mountain had set a curse on us, now I was certain this was the case.

Our original plan was to car camp or bivy on the road underneath our route but since it took us till midnight to get my car unstuck we slept behind my car far from our objective. We awoke at 5 am and were moving by 5:30.

Since walking the road sucks and takes forever, we decided to bushwhack up the forest just to the right of big creek to bring us up to the road to the right of the trail to Jefferson Pass. Our intended route was #2 in the Olympic Guide but ended up giving #1 a try seeing a mostly snow-free trail to the basin.

 

 

We wallowed up the basin post holing in the sun staring at the dry SW ridge wondering why we didn't bring our rock shoes.

Snow gullies and ramps lead us underneath one of the rock ridges separating Ellinor from Washington and we began to traverse right.

 

 

We found steep and exposed snow climbing maybe 50-60 degrees. This lead us right to an easy ridge to a rock outcropping. We traversed right on an exposed ledge and scrambled a 3rd/4th rock to the summit.

Sweet Jesus! We are not cursed!

 

view of Ellinor and the ridge North.

 

Food, water and a celebratory cake (poor substitute for scotch) and we were off down the sweet snow ramp that is route 2 of the Olympic Guide. This route was our last attempt a year ago and we were shut down by Avalanche danger. This time, downclimbing the ramp gave us great consolidated powder on top of a thick crust and was a pleasure to downclimb and plunge step. The basin it ascends from is a beautiful amphitheater and highly recommend the route for this spot alone.

 

 

I don't recommend you down climb it unless you have climbed it before as the route finding down lower is a little tricky.

Thin snow conditions down farther made rappelling from a tree in one section an easier option.

Sliding and plunge stepping down the miserable and never ending gully brought us back to the road where we backtracked our path up through the woods next to the creek via headlamps.

We were back at the car by 7pm.

Somehow we scored free coffee from a casino on the way back and arrived in Seattle around 11.

Solid climbing conditions out in the Olympics, go get 'em!

 

Gear Notes:

60m rope, 2 pickets, a few cams, tools and crampons made it all easier and safer.

 

Approach Notes:

Bottom half of the road is mostly snow free except for North facing aspects.

Edited February 23, 2009 by mountainsloth

[Drederek]

Nice job! We saw one of you crossing the exposed snow finger under the ridge. We were in the basin a little after noon, where time constraints turned us around and back down to the lake. Wish we would've started earlier. It was a great day tho and we were happy to see someone made it up. Did you consider the east ridge at all? It was looking mighty bare. Or the surprise coular (sp?)

D

[mountainsloth]

We didn't see you or anyone else all day. It was nice to have that solitude. Glad you got out as it was a perfect day.

 

Yea, we thought about a rock route, but only after getting up there and with plastics, no rock shoes and minimal rock gear we decided against it. we were better geared for snow.