Howdy all! Thought i'd throw up some of the climbs I've done recently for those that may find this info useful in the future.
I summited Whitehorse this past May with The Mountaineers. I have just completed their Basic Alpine Climbing class and this was my first climb. I actually remember telling one of my climb leaders a couple weeks ago that I was signed up to climb Whitehorse and he just laughed and said, "ah yeah, that's an ass kicker." This is the point that I started running four days a week and hiking Mt Persis and Mt Si a week before the climb with a friend in hopes of keeping the pain to a reasonable level.
I got to the trailhead on Saturday night at about 6:30p the night before the climb. The road about a mile to two miles before the trailhead was closed so there was a mess of cars in various disarray right before the bridge. There was a group of about 12 Mountaineers coming down when we arrived. They said that they had left at 5am that morning, so the climb took them 12 hours. They also said no snowshoes or crampons were necessary. A couple more small groups came down as well making a grand total of 20 people that were gracious enough to kick steps for us.
We (eight of us) started off at about 4:30am on Sunday morning. The first 2,000 feet in elevation gain was on a dirt trail with steep switchbacks before breaking out into a snow covered gully.
We walked up the gulley in the pre kicked steps up and over the pass. The snow was pretty consolidated and only icey in the part where there was shadow. At the pass we had a decrease in elevation for a short while. At this point, most of us had gone through three liters of water and had to stop at a small stream running underneath the snow to filter water before we continued around the back of Whitehorse Mountain.
This section of the trail was across some steep gullies that would be pretty scary if the the snow wasn't so consolidated. There was another steep incline before we reached High Point just before our summit ascent. Here we put on our harnesses and roped up for the steep ascent.
The summit didn't look very far, but it took up some time to traverse up. Right before the summit is a snow slope so steep it was like climbing a ladder. We placed two pickets here to clip through for added protection. I was second on top and the views were just awesome. it was warm and the wind was calm.
After a quick calorie and water break we roped up to rappel down the steep slope right below the summit.
we were able to glissade about 2/3 of the way back down to the dirt trail.
Total Time: 14 hrs roundtrip (we had a lagger, it will take less time for more experienced people)
Water Consumed: 8 liters! (i'd suggest bringing a filter unless you want to carry all that water!)
all in all, a great first summit! I turned around the next day and climbed the tooth in snoqualmie pass as well. made for a pretty productive weekend for me
Here are some pictures:
on ascent
over the pass at High Point, time to rope up!
obligatory summit photo
Whitehorse Mt, Northern Washington
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