June 22 Mt. Ellinor ONP

Preface:

I have been having a hard time getting my long time ski buddy and extreme ski extraordinaire, Jeff up the hill this season.  A recovering ski junkie of many years, Jeff has had his mind focused on the great capitalist persuit this year.  I usually solicit a ski trip once or twice a week to him and have managed get him on a mountain all of three time this season.  I was pleased when he responded to my most recent inquiry and that he was available to ski Sunday if not a little worried that his birthday party was Saturday night.  Jeff called back later to tell me that he was hosting friends from out of town and that it would be rude of him to disappear Sunday.  Despite not wanting to see another one of my friends fall to the binds of capitalism, I simply suggested that we leave the party once things began to die down and ski something nearby.  I explained that we would be back for brunch and no-one would feel left out.  He replied O.K. which is probably why we have been friends for 25 years and ski buddies for most of that time.

The party was an all day event at Jeff's place on Mason Lake with lots of friends and neighbors.  The band set up a bit late (10?) but the D.J. kept the people happy.  Jeff and I paced ourselves well enough switching to coffee nudges just after 2.  The band dispursed, people grew weary and began to leave.  By 3 we bid farewell to the core bunch around the campfire and headed to the hills.


The part that you may care about:

The road up to Ellinor has melted out tremendously in the couple of weeks since I was last up there.  The washout just beyond the "middle trailhead" is pretty sketch.  The lane is about halved (with a fall worthy of notice) as it crosses Big Creek and requires attentive maneuvering.  We made it past in Jeff's Taurus but any less clearance wold have prohibited our progress. FS has it marked with a cone.  One more road hazard and we were stopped by snow within 2-300vf of the upper TH.

We left the car in sneakers at 4:20 reaching the bottom of the chute (4,500') at 5 .  We deposited shoes and skins and began the climb in frozen snow.  We topped the chute in 45 minutes and made our way to the summit at 6:30.  The skies hid the sunrise and offered only occasional views but the temps were comfortable and the winds mild.  We had the mountain to ourselves and made espresso and ate chocolate while we waited for the snow to soften some.  Once we were sufficiently impatient we set our sites on the North Col.  Surprisingly, the top 200' have melted out completely requiring a downclimb.  Below the climb (5,700) deep continuous snow beckons all the way down to Lake Ellinor (4,000').  We skied down to where the slope mellows and booted back up in firm snow.  Upon reaching the top of the N. Col we saw the first climbers of the day (apparently a Mazama's group).  We explained that skiing is better than glissading and dropped a tight south chute which is my favorite line on the hill.  The snow was still a bit too firm but Jeff is a great skier and he sports the heaviest BC gear I've ever seen (Seth Pro's/Naxos/race boots: he describes it as the "HUMVEE" of ski set-ups) so he ripped it right on down.  We had dropped below my intended route so we poked among the cliffs and through the trees to just below our shoe drop.  We recovered our gear and skied to the end of the snow (4,200').  Shoes on.  Walk to car.  Back to the lake at 11 for brunch.

Post script:

I crossed the lake to my folks place to catch up on some parenting with the plan to do some waterskiing in an hour or so.  I was gonna feed the seeds and put them down for a nap and then head out in the boat.  Feeding them went fine but while I was laying down with my daughter for her nap, well... a few hours later I awoke realizing that I am not as young as I was just recently.  Funny how quickly that happens.