[TR] Mt. Ellinor/Mt. Washington - South(ish) 5/26/2013

[denalijacob]

Trip: Mt. Ellinor/Mt. Washington - South(ish)

 

Date: 5/26/2013

 

Trip Report:

Headed up to the Olympics last weekend with some friends... long story short, weather sucked.

 

We got to the Ellinor trailhead around 1 pm, and headed up. Passed a bunch of older folks headed down, but we weren't worried about being late. Got to the bottom of the gully, and couldn't see nada. At the bottom of the gully, we met some guys who were very proud about being the first people up that day, seeing as they mentioned it at least 15 times in 5 minutes.

 

The gully was in great condition. Snow was relatively solid (a bit soft, but no complaints). Salivated over the glissade chutes the whole time (they're 3 feet deep!!!). Topped out onto the plateau-ish thing and it was snowing. Quite nice, actually. Summited 10 minutes after that, and visibility was fifty feet at best. The chute came right off the top, so no worries about that. Got some obligatory glory shots jumping off of the rock formation on top (I would post a picture, but I used a DSLR and the files are too big...first world problems). We were down in all of half an hour, due to the glorious chutes. They're like bobsled tracks.

 

The drive to the Washington trailhead wasn't even 5 minutes. If you've been to the Ellinor trailhead, it's just around the corner on the other road at the junction. Set up camp, could see half of the mountain, had nightmares (it looked fearsome, okay?). I had some breathtakingly crappy Kathmandu Curry for dinner (too much water?) and went to bed early.

 

Rained the whole night, but we went for it anyway. The approach trail (generous use of the term) was muddy as hell, and probably close to 45 degrees in places. Once we popped out onto the snow, we were quickly acquainted with George, a mountain goat with (we decided) murderous intentions. Climbed about 500 feet higher, dug a ton of pits, and after seeing some fresh avy debris we realized that with this weather and snow conditions continuing would't be fun. Slid on my ass in the mud for the whole way down (it's that bad), then scared the hell out of some poor tourists in the wrong parking lot (I was muddy, still wearing my helmet, carrying my axe, and generally looking none too pretty, and they were in cotton sweatshirts looking for Ellinor).

 

All in all, a fun trip, but better weather would have been appreciated (though that's probably too much to ask from the Olympics).

 

Gear Notes:

Hiking boots are fine on Ellinor, but gaiters are a must.

 

Approach Notes:

MUD.