Alpine Scramble - Mount Ellinor (winter)

Based on recent trip reports, we were led to believe that the upper trailhead was snow free. It was, but compact snow made it impossible to get to. We parked around where the snow started on the left side of the road, ~500m before the trailhead. When we arrived back at our cars, there was some shenanigans, as a Tesla had parked on the right side of the road in such a way that there were only inches of clearance on either side of the road. People were swearing under their breaths and several people had to help guide the vehicles between cars, but the Tesla was not scratched. Be a kind human. Don't do what the Tesla driver did. 

The upper trailhead toilets were open, but there was no TP.

We were set to meet at the upper trailhead at 7:30 AM, but one participant had difficulty finding it. We got a slightly later than anticipated start, leaving our cars at around 8:15 AM. The lower trailhead was already full when we passed it, and the road to the upper was lined with cars. The forecast said partly sunny with a chance of rain/snow that increased as the day progressed. This was why I'd made the call to meet at the upper trailhead; to increase the chance that we'd summit before poor weather came. 

We only brought microspikes based on reports from a week prior that said that they were barely necessary, but when we hit snow just before the junction between the summer and winter routes, we found the snow to be rock hard. We stayed in our boots, practicing walking on the slippery stuff without traction; everybody did great. As the trail steepened, we put on our microspikes and took a quick food break. We passed the Olympia branch Basic Alpine Climbing group, who had spent the night on the mountain (and were probably the reason the lower TH was full). They reported that they were able to glissade most of the chute, but that it was compact snow and ice and not very pleasant. We hoped that time would allow the snow to soften and make the glissade chutes more fun for students.

Just before the chute, we got out our ice axes and helmets. The snow was indeed very compact and icy. I regretted telling people to leave their crampons behind. However, the students were all highly skilled and ascended just fine, with no falls beyond slight slips of their feet. As we ascended, we noted potential glissade hazards. About 1/3 of the way up the chute, we encountered the bare rock with water running underneath and noted its location. It looked just slightly more open than the photo I took from this time last year.

The only other observed hazard was a tree in the middle of a deep glissade chute, about 1/4 of the way from the top of the chute.

The path to the summit was straightforward and pleasant. We periodically had very delicate and lovely snow falling on us, helping create ambiance. 

We spent about a half hour at the summit, celebrating the students' success.

By the time we were ready to go, the snow had indeed softened up and there was no longer any need for our microspikes. We did some basic glissading review, and it seemed like everybody had a blast getting down, this leader included. The glissades were about as perfect as you can get; pretty fast if you want to do that, but also very easy to stop yourself in a controlled way without needing to arrest. We were conservative in stopping well before the hazards that we noted, but I'd estimate that we still got to glissade 4/5 of the winter route gully, plus the two glissades from the summit toward the winter route gully. 

After taking off our soaking wet rain pants and switching over to trekking poles, it was an easy walk back to the upper trailhead. 

The winter route on Mount Ellinor can change dramatically from day to day this time of year. It's critical to watch for hazards on the ascent and make decisions based on what you see that day, rather than recent reports that you have read.