Mount Ellinor — Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024

Potholes were pretty gnarly once you turn right at the Cushman tee, not as bad as you turn left and start heading up towards the Ellinor trailheads. There is snow at the upper trailhead where I parked. It started out about a half inch of packed snow and got progressively deeper up the mountain. The trail was packed good so any sort of traction device would work fine. The only hiccup was right before the long staircase, there is an established trail going up towards the left up a very steep chute rather than the normal trail that goes around to the right. I didn’t bring my snow shoes or I would’ve tried to break trail up the normal safer route. I got to the staircase, but decided to turn around because I couldn’t see anything with the fog and snow and it was getting dark. There was also some avalanche activity already, which surprised me. I didn’t see any tracks going the winter route, but I’d be curious if it’s passable because there’s quite a bit of snow up there now.