After climbing Ellinor two weeks ago, I wanted to start nosing around Washington to get a feel for the mountain. A bit of a break in the weather this weekend afforded me the opportunity to hit the trail and have a look around. While I wanted to make a summit attempt, it was not the goal of the trip. I knew that being solo, there were some pretty serious risks on this mountain and everything would depend on weather and snow conditions. Hit the road out of Tumwater at around 0400 and was to the stopped by 0515 on the road up by a blowdown. If you have a 4WD vehicle, it is passable and you are able to gain a few hundred yards further on the road but it wasn't worth the risk in my FWD Lancer. As it was, I was about three miles below the Ellinor trailhead, which was about half a mile closer than my previous weekend up here. So the snow is melting! While I had my snowshoes, they were not needed as I ascended the road. The snow was packed hard. I made the Ellinor lower trailhead by 0615 and continued on to the junction between Ellinor and the Washington road. I continued on after hitting this junction about .25 miles. Passing a picture perfect waterfall, I began my hard ascent up a "ridgeline", I donned my snowshoes here to reduce my chances of postholing as well as some traction. The incline becomes pretty brutal here as you climb through the trees, but in a very short time you come upon a small break in both the trees and steepness. It's a beautiful spot. I pressed on as the slope steepened. Two concerns at this point, one the snow was like ice and two, the weather was closing in on me. Knowing that I was on my own, and seeing that the slope was going to increase in it's grade, I stopped for a few moments and donned my Grivel's. While I felt secure in my footing, I knew that one wrong step would be a painful venture and having become familiar with the route I would be taking, I decided to turn around at the 4500' mark. If I had been able to kick step my way as I did at Ellinor up the chute, I would've continued. I descended quickly back down to the road and made my way back to my car. Unlike two weekends ago when I had the entire mountain to myself, I did run into three other hikers. But still, I would say it was a successful day despite some frustration at not being able to get a bit higher on the mountain.

BAC team Dieter and Helmut climbed Mt. Washington using Route 1 in the Olympic Mountain Rescue guide. An unmarked trail heads into the woods from the road, not far from a waterfall. The trail heads steeply up with very little relief. It is reminiscent of the trail to Lake Constance, with frequent need to use handholds and grab trees and brush to pull ones self up. Came upon a flat area at which point a creek is crossed. The creek was dry at the trail crossing, so followed it to the point at which it flowed, and topped off water containers. Since we started at 6:40 am, the first two-thirds of the climb was largely in shade, which was welcome, since the day was to predicted to reach the mid-80's. Views east were of Mts. Rainier, Adams and St. Helens, and Lake Cushman below, with wakes of boats visible as people tooled around at the opening of the Independence Day holiday weekend. After a good bit more climbing, arrived at another meadow area, whereupon we reached a chute where some 5+ class scrambling was required. This looked like it would be treacherous to down-climb, so we made plans to put a run of prussic cord as a chicken line on the descent. Proceeded over some areas of scree, and more brush, to the base of Washington's "nose", which is a rock climb. Noted a cross and two plaques that had been placed here. The climbers we met later said they'd examined these closely and that they were placed in honor of a rock climber who had perished there. Proceeded along a ridge where, just before reaching the summit block, cresting the ridge, we were afforded a sweeping view west into the heart of the Olympics. Olympus, Mt. Cruiser, Mt. Stone, Mt. Jefferson and many others. After crossing a couple of small patches of snow to approach the summit block, traveled the the right (east) and around, then coiled up to the summit. Whereupon we found....flying ants! A swarm of them! Never seen anything like it. There were so many that it made it impossible to remain standing on the summit for more than a few moments. Just enough time to get a view north toward the Brothers, Mt. Jupiter, etc. We theorized that climbers must have left some lunch scraps at the summit, attracting the ants, and we just happened to come upon them when they'd just gotten their wings...our bad luck. Found a perch just below the summit to enjoy the view and have a bite to eat before descending. Met some other climbers near the summit: A father and son duo, and then a trio of father and son and friend, with whom we spoke after the climb. On the descent we found a climber's trail around the dreaded down-climb, thus avoiding running the prussic. The going that way was much easier. The rest of the descent was rather arduous and, as is so often the case, seemed much longer than the ascent. Did not get back to the road until after 5:00 pm. A satisfying but rather punishing climb.