Mount Ellinor was my second scramble ever, and the first one that I needed my ice axe to travel on steep, hard snow. On that trip, I was super nervous. I didn’t have the proper traction and the conditions meant we couldn’t glissade, which is what this route is popular for. Now finding myself with a bit of time off, I jumped at the chance to do this mid-week on a scramble led by one of my Mountaineers friends, Jordan.

We left Seattle early to avoid some of the weekday traffic in Tacoma and Olympia. We stopped for coffee in Hoodsport before grouping with the other scramblers in our group. We drove the forest roads (which were completely pot-holed) and decided to park at the lower trailhead. I’d heard the way to the upper trailhead was snow-free primarily, but we decided we’d like to do the extra mileage of the lower trail. It was at this point that one of the guys who got a ride with Jordan accidentally locked Jordan’s keys in his truck! We were so shocked, we didn’t know what to do. We decided to worry about it after we finished the scramble.

We started just after 9 am and headed up the lower trail. It slowly works its way up along a ridge for about 2 miles through the forest before meeting the upper trail junction. After the intersection with the upper trail, it gets pretty steep switchbacking until you reach a junction of the winter and summer trails. Just before this junction, we met the snowpac,k which was pretty hard and consolidated on the trail.

We took the winter route, and the trail opens up to reveal a snow-covered couloir that looks long and steep from the bottom. The glissade tracks were well defined, snaking down the mountain like a toboggan track. We put on helmets and crampons, then got out our ice axes. The snow conditions were pretty great, hard enough to make walking up in crampons easy, but soft enough you didn’t have to drive your feet in too hard. Some sections of the climb up are narrow in the couloir, so the steps are right next to the glissade chutes, and no room to make switchbacks; keep climbing straight up.

Once you reach the top of the couloir, the route heads to the left for two more (much shorter) slopes uphill to reach the summit. We had fantastic weather on the summit, and you get 360 views into the Olympics, out to Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and the Puget Sound. We could see to Seattle! We hung around on the summit, grabbing a bite to eat and taking lots of photos, before taking off our crampons and putting on our rain pants to prepare for the glissade down.

Some of the group were new to glissading, so before we started, we had a recap on technique. Steve went first, and I followed. There were about five chutes that we connected on the way down. Some were very steep and cut into, making it pretty tricky to control speed. One of them, near the top of the couloir, had a tree poking out of it, which we all tried to avoid by going left or right, but ended up just going over the top of it. We all had a great time with the glissade, and I was glad I got to experience it this time around.

When the trail was snow-free, we stashed our ice axes and removed our waterproof layers used for the glissade. The hike back to the parking lot went fine, and we all went at our own pace. When we got back, it was time to worry about the key locked in the car issue. Thankfully, on the way up to the summit, Jordan got cell service and was able to contact his girlfriend. She met us at the trailhead at 3 pm and brought some tools to get into the car. The wire coat hanger worked a treat and we weren’t delayed too much by the whole thing. We stopped in Hoodsport on the way back to Seattle for some burgers.