Mt. Ellinor

Started from the upper parking lot with skis on our packs with trail runners. Bright and sunny — yay June!

The trail to the base of the main gully was clear and dry for 75% of the way. For maybe the last 1/4 mile, there was snow on the ground. There was about 1-2” of softer melted slush on top of pretty solid-feeling base. (The past couple nights had been forecast to hover at or slightly below freezing with some light snowfall 2 days prior. Intermittent cloud cover kept everything feeling pretty cool all day even if it was above freezing. Throughout the day didn't see any issues with loose-wet.)

We followed the main boot-pack up which is right next to the glissade route down. We had ski crampons but it ended up being easier to just boot up. Minor hazard: At the top of the first gully section, there’s a creek that was running through the middle of the gully and the snow bridge over it was getting pretty thin at the edges. Falling through could hurt.

Booting up was easy until the last main chute/hill. The snow was getting pretty steep and climbing up required a little more attention, but doable in touring boots. Some traction or an ice axe/whippet would’ve made this a breeze.

Made it to the top and took some photos just as the clouds cleared. Then ripped skins and started skiing down the way we came up. We chose to down-climb the steep section mentioned above because the snow was quite sticky. Further down we managed to link some turns in the middle section taking care not to rip up the glissade/bootpack.

Great day and my first time skiing in June!