[TR] Olympic Range - Mt Washington - Mt Ellinor complete skyline. 1/27/2015

[twinkletobes]

Trip: Olympic Range - Mt Washington - Mt Ellinor skyline traverse.

 

Date: 1/27/2015

 

Trip Report:

The route: Mt Washington to Mt Ellinor Complete Skyline.

 

I had heard of the Washington - Ellinor traverse being done before, staying on the east side, avoiding the Wedge, serrations and many of the other primary skyline obstacles. So I set out to see if I could do it myself, on-sight and free solo, staying entirely on the skyline. OH! and in winter...... I guess

 

The Trip:

I arrive at the trail-head at 8:00am. Carrying 4 of the 10 essentials, I know I have to be fast and light to overcome the rocky spine, alone. At my back Mt Rainier, Mt Adams and Mt St Helens send me off as the sun crests Rainier’s shoulder and illuminates the blanket of fog covering the South Sound. It’s going to be a good day.

 

Sunrise

 

I start up the steep, vague trail. This trail is one of my favorites in the state. Its vague, it beckons you to wander. The blow-downs are confusing, the flags few and the maintenance is minimal. I arrive at the lower meadow bathed in orange morning light. It’s January and the meadow is entirely clear of snow, less snow than there was in summer last year. I wonder about receding glaciers, pausing to feel my heart grow heavy as I think about how Earth is rapidly falling into disrepair.

 

I cross the meadow into the forest on the other side. I pass the blow-down on its left and scramble up the dry, rocky creek bed. Cross through the forest again, I always loose the trail here, but I will regain it at the scree slope.

 

Once atop the scree I begin climbing into the rocky gulley with the tall slab on its left and a tower high above on its right. About a third of the way up the gulley I face the slab and begin climbing a direct line to the ridge crest. All of my senses come alive. The slab is high, but reveals many weaknesses allowing passage to the top. Its going to be a good day.

 

I gain the ridge crest and begin a pleasant walk up into the Eastern Cirque. I aim for a series of ridges and of laid back class 4 cliff bands.

 

The Cirque

 

I examine the Surprise Couloir. All I know about the couloir is that its there. Not wanting to tread familiar ground I aim for it. The snow cover in the couloir is minimal, and completely disappears in a few spots revealing a boulder-sized chock stone. I ascend the couloir mainly on its left wall. The chockstone appears to be a major roadblock, wedged in-between fairly featureless walls. The only way I find to overcome the belly of the boulder is to place my ice axe in a crack and hoist, myself up. I feel committed.

 

Surprise Couloir

 

I continue up to the top of the couloir to a narrow pass choked with hearty alpine brush. It claustrophobic, and the exposure on both sides of the pass is dizzying. Inches to my right is the west face, I cant see the bottom. I have to get out of here. I don’t see the summit anywhere. The moat under the north-facing wall robs me of my confidence as I attempt to mount it.

 

The features are thin, and I cant back down. I begin ascending the wall with a few class 5 moves aiming for a rightward trending weakness in the mountain. As I work rightward I look past my heels into the massively exposed west face. For a moment I think of my Girlfriend, and why I climb, and think to myself that this isn’t worth it. But with every move the climbing gets easier until I am flying up easy in-cut holds and I immediately remember why I climb.

 

I head south on the ridgeline as the summit comes into view farther away than I had expected, but a short scramble leads me to the top of Mt Washington at 10:30. Good time. It’s going to be a good day.

 

The summit of Mt. Washinton

 

I descend a dirty gulley toward Ellinor and across the only walking portion of the skyline. It feels good to walk a moment.

 

I cross broken cliff bands to what I call the Wedge. I had seen the Wedge before and I knew it would be a major challenge for my nerve. I find a cross and memorial plaque at the base of the Wedge. That will make you think. I begin climbing the arête. Its brilliant, the rock feels positive. I feel so confident and free as I solo the arête, splitting my vision between its two massive walls. I gain the summit of the wedge without disturbing my confidence.

 

The Wedge

 

On the Wedge

 

On top of The Wedge

 

At the top of the Wedge the serpentine nature of the ridge and the next series of obstacles is revealed. A series of chossy, serrated blocks makes up the skyline. The skyline is defined further as the west side is bathed in light and the east; dark, cold. I hand traverse much of the skyline, making a point to top out on every prominent gendarme along the way. The whole route seems to be dangerously exposed. The climbing is hard class 4 for the most part with the occasional 5th class move that could be avoided if you allowed yourself to detour portions of the skyline. But I came here to climb.

 

The serrations and massive overhanging bulge.

 

After the serrations the ridge lowers its defenses and the fun really starts. Continually exposed 4th class climbing along the ridge-line is fabulous aside from the occasional dirty gulley. In places you can even walk the ridge as it drops away into a profound void on both sides. This portion of the ridge ends in two prominent gendarmes, which I climb and then make the tricky descent on down-sloping ledges to the lowest portion of the skyline.

 

The serpentine ridge-line, This is the longest and highest quality section IMO.

 

A strange alcove

 

Here is where I see what I call the Tower. The Tower rises from the pass nearly vertically and is full of dirt and choss, I know I cant climb it safely, so I set my eyes on a couloir to its immediate left diverting briefly, and not far, from the skyline.

 

The couloir is fun to climb, even better and much steeper than the Surprise Couloir with harder snow pack. When I get to the narrow pass at the top I worry that I might be shut down. The difficult pinnacle south of the pass must be overcome to continue but I can find no way around it or over it.

 

The only way is a overhanging bulge with an off-width crack through it. It takes a while to decipher but after shoving my pack high into the crack I make some exposed 5th class moves over the bulge and reach down to retrieve my pack. After crossing over the steep difficult pinnacle and a short descent I arrive at Horse’s Mouth.

 

The Tower, and the line I climbed immediately left of the Tower, you can see the difficult pinnacle just left of the pass atop the coulior.

 

I consider an attempt to climb the Horses Mouth from the west side but quickly decide that would be stupid.

 

I go astray from the climbers path and ascend the slab due south to its top. This I call the triangle. I descent the Triangle’s quality east ridge and begin scrambling the final portions of the ridge to just below and right of Mt Ellinor’s summit snowfield. I ascend the snow-field and gain the summit. Its 1:00. Almost 2.5 hours of rock climbing and scrambling over 1.3 miles. I’m back at my car by 2:00

 

The ridge-line as viewed from Mt Ellinor Summit

 

The skyline.

 

This route is FUN!! I was starry eyed for hours. Every time the route seemed to be come impassable I would just examine it long enough and the mountain would always reveal weakness just where you need it. I spent maybe a totally of 10mins deciphering route finding issues, for the most part it was non-stop progress. But to do this free-solo is so dangerous. It would be easy to get yourself into something that you cant get yourself out of along the serration or any of the gendarme peaks. Along a fair 90% of the skyline any mistake could result in a fall, and your chances of not falling to the bottom are minimal.

 

I’m not sure how to grade it. Everything feels so different when your free-solo, it feels harder. But, I would say its mostly very exposed Becky 4th class with class 5 moves to 5.5, also exposed. My trip report was written the day after, while looking at the very few photos I took so there may be some omissions or errors. I wasn’t really worried about remembering the route when I was on it; I just wanted to finish it.

 

Also, I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I think 6hrs car to car is a best-case scenario. I gave myself 10. And if you use protection, and travel in a group it could really slow you down.

 

Sawtooth range topped by Mt Cruiser and backed by Mt Olympus

 

A crazy looking buttress on the west side of Mt Lincoln that I believe is unclimbed.

[twinkletobes]

 

Ive always wanted t draw a little red line on a mountain

[dberdinka]

Nice report. That was my stomping ground BITD. Crazy lack of snow! and I thought the Baker Ski Area was in bad shape.

[stamati]

dang dude. very nice work a great write-up!

[Drederek]

Good Job! We went up Washington on Sunday and could not believe how nice the weather was and how little snow was up there. Must have been colder on Monday, our sweaters and jackets never made it out of our bags. There were a couple other spots along the traverse that I went around a few years back, good for you to power thru them. Its magical being up there when it seems like you have the whole valley to yourself.