Mount Ellinor — Monday, Jan. 18, 2021

Road Conditions:

Hiked Ellinor on Monday, January 18^th. We starting driving up Forest Road 2419 at about 9:00 am. Road is completely snow free until the lower trailhead. Snow starts just after the lower trailhead but we opted to continue as there were tire tracks. The Ford Explorer that was stuck a few weeks ago has been removed from the road so we were able to make it about a ¼ mile from the upper trailhead before our tires started to dig into the snow. We backed down to the last pull-out, parked, and walked the rest of the way to the upper trailhead. It’s possible that we may have been able to make it all the way up but part of driving in the snow is knowing when you shouldn’t continue. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE A CAPABLE HIGH-CLEARANCE 4X4 VEHICLE AND HAVE EXPERIENCE DRIVING IN THE SNOW OR YOU WILL END UP LIKE THE AFOREMENTIONED FORD. I have a 2004 4x4 Nissan Xterra with a 2” lift and 32” all-terrain tires for reference and was scraping quite a bit in places. I wouldn’t attempt this with anything less than 10” of ground clearance or you’ll run the risk of getting high centered (Absolutely DO NOT try this in any stock vehicle). There is a couple feet in snow in places on the drive up and near the upper trailhead. Someone attempted this later in the day and it looks like they got stuck a couple times and tore the road up pretty good.

Also, some of the deepest snow on the road is at the shortcut trail that leads from the road to the upper trailhead bathroom. Not worth it in my opinion compared to starting from the lower trailhead. If you can make it to/past the shortcut trail, you can probably make it to at least the junction of NF-2419 and NF-014.

Trail Conditions:

From the upper trailhead, the trail becomes bare after the first switchback from the parking lot and is snow-free until the junction with the lower trail about 0.3 miles up. I would recommend putting on spikes here as the snow is continuous from this point on. The rest of the trail was icy until the afternoon. Spikes (recommend crampons) and ice axe are mandatory with the current conditions. We watched a kid without spikes slide off the summit and to the edge of a cliff but was able to self-arrest with his ice-axe before going off the edge. There is a TON of avalanche debris at the bottom of the chute that makes hiking a little more difficult but avalanche conditions were good. Very icy from near the top of the chute to the summit. We spent some time on the summit and then began our descent around noon. The snow had softened considerably by this point which made for good glissade conditions. We glissaded down to the avalanche debris and then walked the rest. The trail in the forest was super slick on the way down.

Closing Thoughts:

1. Be prepared. Bring spikes, ice axe, a shovel for your car, etc. We saw a couple groups in converse/vans/etc. on our way down and got asked “Is this the trail?” by multiple groups. Being under prepared not only puts yourself in danger but put others in danger as well.
2. Know your limits driving. It’s not worth trying to save a few miles/minutes and getting your car stuck. For example, a group that was descending with us reached their car at the lower trailhead AT THE SAME TIME that we were passing the lower trailhead in our car. Driving in these conditions is slow going, you’re probably not going to save much time.
3. With the current layer of hard ice, the next large snowfall event will likely bring avalanche conditions. Check the NWAC Avalanche Forecast before you go and don’t be afraid to turn around if conditions are sketchy, it’s an avalanche chute after all!