March 25, 2006, Mt. Ellinor, Olympics
3/25/06
WA Olympics
3982
5
The Scotsman and I joined a bunch of snowshoers from Peninsula Wilderness Club to ski this 5940" peak above Lake Cushman. Snow on the road forced us to ski 1-1/2 miles just to the lower trailhead, then up a clearcut to the upper parking lot. Warm, spring temps.
The summer trail was hard and crunchy, but when we hit the winter climbing route it opened up out of the trees and got very good for turning---then a wierd thing happened in "the chute", a narrow gully that people climb when there is snow. We skinned up the lower part of the chute and under a big overhanging rock, and when Chris dug a small sholvel hole, under 4" of windslab he found 2 FEET of graupel-like snow that literally fell out of the back wall. So a full-size pit was dug, and same thing: 2-3mm styrofoam balls that collapsed out of the back of the pit. A shovel column was isolated and the stuff couldn't fall away from it fast enough on the sides, and a compression test brought failure with only 2 wrist taps.the little slab also slid away from the really loose graupel with almost no prompting.
SO we decided not go farther. It was 30 deg. where we stopped, and went to 35-40 just above, but the big deal was the bowl where it opened up above before it steepens to 40-45. It was getting really warm and so we didn't risk it.
However, we got to ride the lower 500' of the chute on great loose-to-corn, and since we couldn't do the entire chute we lapped it again. the summer trail down the ridge was a pain---crust on a steep slope, with the ridge crest all chewed up by boots and snowshoes, and some tight trees. I skied toward an openign near the summer parking area and was rewarded by downed logs, one of which I had to jump off to catch up to the Kilted One. the we had a really cool taste of corn in the clearcut and skied out the road to the truck. 3400' total in half a day.
Scotty said he would post but I couldn't wait.
Question: what on earth was that super-unconsolidated stuff, and has anyone seen it? It seemed very localized but a point release of that would have been muy malo.
Upside: the chute is a classic line, and this year has tons of snow. I predict good turns there long after the road has melted out and is open all the way to the upper trailhead. But don't tell anyone, because "The Olympics are a pile, and the snow is unreliable". ;)
The summer trail was hard and crunchy, but when we hit the winter climbing route it opened up out of the trees and got very good for turning---then a wierd thing happened in "the chute", a narrow gully that people climb when there is snow. We skinned up the lower part of the chute and under a big overhanging rock, and when Chris dug a small sholvel hole, under 4" of windslab he found 2 FEET of graupel-like snow that literally fell out of the back wall. So a full-size pit was dug, and same thing: 2-3mm styrofoam balls that collapsed out of the back of the pit. A shovel column was isolated and the stuff couldn't fall away from it fast enough on the sides, and a compression test brought failure with only 2 wrist taps.the little slab also slid away from the really loose graupel with almost no prompting.
SO we decided not go farther. It was 30 deg. where we stopped, and went to 35-40 just above, but the big deal was the bowl where it opened up above before it steepens to 40-45. It was getting really warm and so we didn't risk it.
However, we got to ride the lower 500' of the chute on great loose-to-corn, and since we couldn't do the entire chute we lapped it again. the summer trail down the ridge was a pain---crust on a steep slope, with the ridge crest all chewed up by boots and snowshoes, and some tight trees. I skied toward an openign near the summer parking area and was rewarded by downed logs, one of which I had to jump off to catch up to the Kilted One. the we had a really cool taste of corn in the clearcut and skied out the road to the truck. 3400' total in half a day.
Scotty said he would post but I couldn't wait.
Question: what on earth was that super-unconsolidated stuff, and has anyone seen it? It seemed very localized but a point release of that would have been muy malo.
Upside: the chute is a classic line, and this year has tons of snow. I predict good turns there long after the road has melted out and is open all the way to the upper trailhead. But don't tell anyone, because "The Olympics are a pile, and the snow is unreliable". ;)
Nice report Telemack, now if you could only figure out how to post the pictures you took, we could share our adventure in glorious color with these nice folks. ???
You need to cast aside your luddite tendencies and learn to post those pictures. ;D
Great day, strange snow in the pit. I told the guys who I was skiing with on Sunday about my "graupel layer" and they looked like I was smoking the "wacky baccy" again.
Anybody else ever come across such a deep layer of graupel like snow in a pit.
My theory is that there was a graupel storm( Duh!!) and because the bowl is so large above the constriction in the chute, it all slide down and was accumulated at the bottleneck in the chute. It was probably just a localised area but I wasn't willing to commit above it or crossing it.
You need to cast aside your luddite tendencies and learn to post those pictures. ;D
Great day, strange snow in the pit. I told the guys who I was skiing with on Sunday about my "graupel layer" and they looked like I was smoking the "wacky baccy" again.
Anybody else ever come across such a deep layer of graupel like snow in a pit.
My theory is that there was a graupel storm( Duh!!) and because the bowl is so large above the constriction in the chute, it all slide down and was accumulated at the bottleneck in the chute. It was probably just a localised area but I wasn't willing to commit above it or crossing it.
Question: what on earth was that super-unconsolidated stuff, and has anyone seen it? It seemed very localized but a point release of that would have been muy malo.
We had some on big four a few weeks ago but it only lasted for a short stretch. Dangerous stuff. Fortunately it was very localized. Not something I see very often and try to avoid when I do see it.
Cheers to you guys for heading up on Ellinor. I'm planning to ski it when more of the road melts out. I've skied the 'chute' a couple times, but the last few times I've been hitting the open slope where the summer trail goes. From the top basically follow the summer trail and then work through the woods. Glad to hear you guys know what's up and were cautious! Yikes!
Take care.
Take care.
I took this picture through a scope from our house in Shelton Saturday morning. Tons of snow up there. Look how plastered the trees on the summer trail side are.
Note the gully to the right (skier's left) of the normal Winter route. Looks fun!
Also took this picture of something that looks interesting this year. Can you guess what it is?
If you need to check how much snow is on Ellinor/Washington you can check our webcam. Charles has it on the weathercam page under Southern Olympics.
Note the gully to the right (skier's left) of the normal Winter route. Looks fun!
Also took this picture of something that looks interesting this year. Can you guess what it is?
If you need to check how much snow is on Ellinor/Washington you can check our webcam. Charles has it on the weathercam page under Southern Olympics.
Thanks for posting those great pics DB. You have a nice view from your place! Reminds me of when I had my wife watch me ski the chute through a telescope on the deck of my in laws cabin at Lake Cushman. I can envision several descent options looking at that pic, other than the two I've always done. Look at all that snow!
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