From Terrence's WTA Report:
We are the Mountain Goats, and today, one of us (Terrence, 12) climbed Mount Washington in the Olympics.

The forest road is windy and a little rough, but not too bad. The trailhead is off of a turnoff, right before the Upper Mount Ellinor trailhead. The beginning of trail is very steep, but pretty easy to follow. The trail is kind of of like Snoqualmie Mountain and Old Mailbox. Straight and no switchbacks. You start in the forest, and in about a half mile enter a pleasant meadow. After .7 miles, you get up to a scree field where you can begin to see your destination above. After carefully going through the scree field, route finding gets more difficult as you enter a steep ravine. Be sure to stay to the left as you go up, and it's a bit easier. Lots of rocks and roots to climb up, and the scrambling begins here.

At the top of the ravine, you enter another meadow with a couple of paths. We stayed to the left again, and eventually we reached a steep headwall/ravine where the first class 3 scrambling began. The rock was a bit wet and mossy, and it's very loose. All the rocks from higher up the mountain funnel down into this gully where you ascend, so a helmet is important. From the top of this gully, we took a hard right and ascended another steep scree field, which was very loose and slippery. From there, the trail gets easier to follow, and you head north/northeast around the large summit area. There is one spot where it looks like the trail ends, and you have to go straight through a clump of brush and trees growing out of the side of the mountain. From there you can see the summit as you climb up an exposed traverse that seems cut straight out of the rock.

At this point you continue up the ridge and another traverse towards the summit block ahead. Right below the summit, 150 feet or so, you take a hard left up a chute, and then finish the final 30-foot scramble to a small, jagged summit. Today, we were very lucky with the clear sky so we saw all the major mountains (Baker, Shuksan, Glacier, Rainier, Adams, St. Helens) as well as the entire Olympic range spread out before us, including Mount Olympus and Mount Anderson. We spent about 45 minutes on the summit. Coming down took as much time as going up given the steepness.

We left the car at 8:45 am and got back a bit before 3, and only ran into 5 people all day. While only 4 miles round trip, you gain 3,200 in elevation and it takes time to pick through the trail and rocks. This is a really fun mountain for practicing your scrambling skills! Thanks for reading and happy hiking!!