[dicey]

After aborting a back door attempt at kaleetan on friday due to steady rain, wind and snow (we turned around at gem lake), I was not looking forward to an even longer drive to meet similar conditions. I went anyway, of course Things were looking pretty grim in seattle at 6am on saturday morning, but by the time we reached Hoodsport, sucker holes of blue skies here and there began to lift our spirits. We parked at a rather obscure 'trailhead', really just a pull out in the road a short distance from the upper Mt Ellinor trailhead turn off. Luckily, I was with a couple of folks who had done this route before (1A), and knew the 'keys' to the climb. The climbers' track shoots straight up from the road (behind a largish boulder) and continues straight up over massive root systems, boulders and steep gymnastic gullys. A small meadow is quickly reached bearing the evidence of a massive avalanche - twisted and distorted trees litter the area - a lasting and sobering scene of destruction. After the meadow, it's up and up again, this time through a series of steep rocky, rooty gullies. The trail is well marked and easy to follow up into an open talus field, then back into some more talus gullies which eventually spit you out into a larger, blueberry filled meadow. From here, trails go off in several directions, but we just took the straight up one, which leads to yet another large talus basin. Here, we ran into a couple of fellows who had been to the summit, and wanted to know how to get down! Apparently, they didn't like their ascent route. We gave them some beta and continued up and around the base of a large rock buttress. Well, it looked like a rock buttress, but with all the swirling fog and clouds, we could just barely make out ghostly shadows towering above us. Continuing along the base of this massive rock wall, we searched and found a key ledge which accesses the upper ramparts of the mountain. This ledge switches back and forth, eventually leading to another key ledge, which goes behind a stand of trees and the wall itself. This 'tree tunnel' pops you out at the base of a 3 foot wide ramp, covered in loose gravel, sporting a significant drop to the right, and the cold comfort of the rock wall to the left (a lot easier on the way up, than on the way down ) After some more scree and dirt we came to a sharp ridge with drops to either side and followed another ledge system around the corner to the base of the final scree and rock chute. This chute leads to a short 15-20 foot scramble to the summit. The sun came out hot for a few minutes, but otherwise we were surrounded by swirling fog. After about 30 min. we resigned ourselves to descending without experiencing the views we had earned. BTW, the summit register has everything it needs (pencil, pen, paper, etc). The descent was unremarkable, but did include a 20-30 minute berry picking break in the upper meadow, followed by a 15 minute rain shower. Back at the car, things were starting to clear a bit, so I roped Shauna into a quick run up Ellinor for some views. We both found the trail to the summit to be remarkably civilized and well groomed. The views to the east were clear all the way to Seattle and beyond, but no amount of impatient foot stomping in the cold wind revealed more than furtive glimpses of what lay to the west. We walked back down to the car, admiring the pinkening skies pre sunset. Where does one get some good grub in Hoodsport? We ended up eating at the Chevron

fog and spires on mt washington

shauna and patrick nearing the summit of mt washington

lake cushman from ellinor

[Tazz]

[gary]

Bummer you missed the views from Ellinor. My daughter's cross-country team frequently uses that one for training. Nice trail... I think you hit the pinnacle of dining in Hoodsport

[gareite]

Tazz; You got your bodies of water a little mixed up. That is lake Cushman in the photo!

[Tazz]

oops Ok i like the shot of the lake or water or whatever thanks Gareite