Mount Ellinor/Route 1

The weather was forecast-ed for fairly heavy snow and winds, with wind chill in the 6-10 degree range for the summit. We met at Hoodsport at 7:30am and drove to the lower trail head (25 minute drive). The trail was snow free at the trail head but quickly started accumulating. At the lower/upper trail intersection we had approximately 4-6" of new. The upper mountain's open slopes had snow depths from none on wind scoured ridges to 3.5' in lee slopes, making trail breaking a significant challenge. Total time from the cars to the summit was about 3 hours and back to the cars 2 hours. It snowed and was windy pretty much the entire day with fairly minimal views. However, we were mostly able to follow the trail so navigation was not an issue. Some students used micro spikes on the trail and tended to have more issues with snow balling up then gaining traction it seemed.