Home > Trip Reports > May 9, 2017, Mt. Ellinor winter route

May 9, 2017, Mt. Ellinor winter route

5/9/17
WA Cascades East Slopes North
3903
5
Posted by telemack on 5/11/17 1:09am
I have a brand new AT setup, so I thought I should test it on my local mini-mountain.  The road is open to the lower TH, but skiable snow only begins a few hundred feet below the chute.  I hiked the road (in new ski boots  ::) ) to the middle trail, thence to the upper TH and up.  Over 20 booters, only one skier.  The chute was badly impacted by boots with a 2' deep glissade trough.  Ugh.  The summer route or companion lines are more pristine.  Only about 1300' skiable.  On the way out I went down the road to stay on snow, which was simpler than the steep down-hike but involved several carries.  
Spring snow on the S side is past its prime but can be done.  There are several feet of snow in many places below the upper TH.  I'd recommend sneakers up the lower trail and stash them above the junction.  
N side and Washington still have some goods!
Gone over to the Dark Side, eh? You'll have to surrender your handle.

Any chance you looked at the  NE Chute, down from the summit of Ellinor?

author=KickSteps link=topic=38467.msg155819#msg155819 date=1494889440]
Any chance you looked at the  NE Chute, down from the summit of Ellinor?

The one leading down to Lake Ellinor and Jefferson Creek, right?  I did take a peek.  The main central entry was uncorniced and doable but there were lips on the sides where steeper entries lie.  There was no sign of recent slide activity, in contrast to the S side where there was substantial rubble from several days before my trip.  It looked loaded.
H2oskier and a partner skied part way down the chute the 6th or 7th, I believe.

This was before all the precip. of the last several days, of course.

Here is pic from our trip several days before Telemack's trip.  A few days before the weekend, there was that first big warm up where the snow levels were above 10,000 feet.  On Sunday, we climbed in socked in fog and only got sun and views at the summit. The snow level was way down and there was about a 1/2 inch of new snow.  The turns were dust on a very hard crust, since we didn't wait around for the sun.  We wanted to ski back down the front to the skiers right from the summit, but we had no visibility on the front side.  The chute was a mess and the glissade track is deep.  Skiers right from the summit would be the way to go.  On a side note, I spoke with a local climber on the way up that asked if I was doing the Washington Traverse.  He indicated that some skiers will ski the NE couloir and then climb up the back side of Washington and ski the front down to the intersection where the upper trailhead road merges.  Wonder if anyone who has done this can comment?   

Major thanks for the head up...that image is SO tempting. One of these days I'm going to do it, with a buddy or two. Maybe even a belay in case things slip.

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may-9-2017-mt-ellinor-winter-route-2
telemack
2017-05-11 08:09:15