[TR] Mt. Ellinor (WA Olympics) - Winter and summer routes 3/15/2014

[dpforestry]

Trip: Mt. Ellinor (WA Olympics) - Winter and summer routes

 

Date: 3/15/2014

 

Trip Report:

 

For those that may be curious, conditions on Ellinor were wet and soggy yesterday. We hiked up the winter route, tagged the summit, and then did a little routefinding to head down the summer route. We had a late start (345 pm at lower TH...upper TH is still unaccessible) and hit the summit around 615pm, necessitating a hasty decent. It was pretty much puking massive snow flakes and the wind was blowing hard. Visibility was fair at best but good enough to identify a line down the ridge and then into to the large bowl leading down to the summer trail. This broad steep bowl and the narrow terrain trap below it are good reasons to avoid the summer route in less than ideal avalanche conditions...much like the evening we found ourselves there. I hadnt been to Ellinor in a few years and on this route only in the summer. So, this "minor" detail had escaped me earlier in the day when i decided a loop would be a fun idea. Nevertheless, with daylight rapidly waning, we werent about to climb back up to the top, traverse, and then descend the winter gully without axes. We picked short lines down from safe zone to safe zone, one by one, until we were in the clear and picked up a faint snowshoe trailing leading back down. Made it back to the car at 830pm and had enough light to leave headlamps in our packs.

 

Summary:

-lower trailhead is accessible with zero snow on the road.

- snow on road becomes impassible juat after the lower th, so the upper th is not accessible

-snow was very wet and sunk down about shin deep on the

-kick stepping up the winter gulley was no problem as the snow was soft/firm enough

-avoid the summer route in anything but ideal avalanche conditions

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

trekking poles