Alpine Scramble - Mount Ellinor/Route 1

The road was open all the way to the lower trailhead, and with snow level being where they were on the trail one could infer that the road is open all the way to the upper trailhead.  That being said, there are enough large potholes that driving up is problematic.  Lower clearance vehicles are not advised.

We started from the lower trailhead and encountered minimal obstacles on our way up, just a couple of blowdowns that were easily surmounted.  We first encountered hard packed snow around 4,300 feet.

After the recent rains the snow in the chute and above was wet and heavy but compacting well, although it is melting out, especially at the base of the chute. The creek is beginning to open up, with running water showing as high as 4,600 feet.  

While the glissade path was minimal at around 12:30, by the time we headed back down at 14:00 the chute had troughed out significantly, becoming shoulder deep in areas.  The snow conditions, i.e. heavy and wet, made descent control fairly easy, even in the more steep areas, but if freezing levels drop down to  predicted levels the path could ice up and become extremely hazardous.

After trundling back to the vehicles we topped of our day with coffee and ice cream at Hoodsport Coffee and went our separate ways back to "civilization."