April 7, 2007, Mt Ellinor. Olympics

      Last weekend (Apr1) the snow in the Ellinor chute was so hard that Katie and I had to use crampons and decided no way were we going to ski or snowboard coming down.  Friday ( Apr6)I had to work and it was 80 degrees out and I was thinking that those little "Gremlins" working for Murphey's Law are going to do it to me again. Well I fixed those little Gremlins. I got off work early Friday and managed to get up to the lower trail head at 5:00 PM and on top at 7:15.  I watched the sun set into the Pacific as I boarded down on snow as soft as mashed potatoes. I was back to the car at 8:30, 3 1/2 hrs later.
      I fixed those little Gremlins again on Sunday too ;). Sunday morning was clear and I made it back to the top at around noon and made it back down before the dark clouds rolled in and it started snowing. (2 hrs to the top).
      The route up from the lower trailhead is a little faster by about 30 min if one takes the snow covered road to the climbers trail that goes directly up the stump covered hillside directly to the upper trailhead (& outhouse) continuing on up the winter route (chute). The trail up from the lower trailhead is more scenic though.
    The route going down that I've been using drops off the top 100 yds retracing the up route going down to the top of the little hill below the summit) then turns right and drops into the steep (but short) chute that leads to the wide open field (Cawabunga!)where the summer trail is buried  many feet deep. It then continues roughly in the area of the summer trail to the junction of the winter and summer routes.
    I know those little "Gremlins" are still out there trying to work me woe  but not this weekend!  Written by Nathan and Katie's Dad :(