Rhino Ascents: Mt Ellinor, SE Chute (5,944')

You never know how things are going to work out. I have been looking for an opportunity to lead a Chemeketan club climb of Mt. Ellinor for over a year, but for one reason or another it hasn't happened. Consequently, when poor weather forced Scott Kelley to cancel his provisional lead of Middle Sister (I was his mentoring leader), I suggested we give the ol' girl a shot. While not great, at least the weather was better than bad so we decided to go for it.

As we worked our way up I-5 towards the turnoff to Hoodsport, we realized this may have been a better idea on paper than in reality -- it was raining cats and dogs! Finally, less than ten miles from the trailhead, we hit dry road. We still had to deal with low clouds, but at least we were dry.

Our Team: Stephen, Cathy, Mark, Gloria, Chuck, Diane, Cynde, Me, Scott, & Wild Bill (front).

There are three trailheads leading to Mt. Ellinor; the upper (for mom's, dad's, kids and dogs), the lower (1.9 miles longer and our choice), and the trail out of Big Creek Campground (add 3.6 miles & several hundred feet of elevation.... hey, we're tough, not crazy). The root-covered trail led past a wonderful vista view of Lake Cushman....

and eventually to a way trail leading to "The Chute".

We worked our way up through the low clouds, over frozen snow bridges, under low hanging branches, over rocky piles of loose talus, and across dry stream beds, eventually topping out just a few hundred feet below the summit.