Whitehorse Mountain July, 2000

Route Information

After last year's overnight grunt to Lone Tree Pass, we decided that there must be a better way of exploring Whitehorse Mountain. This time we would try a fast and light approach, sleeping at the trailhead and leaving painfully early.

Shortly after 3:30 am, starting up the Niederprum trail in the dark

The plan was going accordingly as we leisurely made our way to the trailhead after work on Friday. We were set to get up at 3:00 am, and settled into the back of the 2DrX truck. Sleep was not to be. Soon we were relentlessly razzed every half-hour by a moron on a quadrunner - this torture lasted well until the wee hours. We were soon heading up the steep switchbacks at 3:30, after some coffee and GU.

The night air was cool and felt nice while climbing up the steep trail. The headlamps offered a focus on the task at hand, and the time went by quickly. At about the same time, we both noticed that we felt somewhat queasy. It must have been the effects of basically no sleep. Sleeping at the trailhead was appearing to have been a bad choice. Soon we were climbing to views down to the lights of the Darrington valley in the early morning darkness. We sat down at the 2-mile camp and took a long rest, just as the dawn light was appearing. The urge to upchuck was slowing leaving us.

The summit can be seen from the 2-mile camp

The trail up to this point was in good shape, except for a couple huge blowdowns that had to be climbed over. From now on, the trail would consist of about an hour of steep climbing up a trench-like trail until snow was encountered at about the 3500' level. From here it was easy to follow flags up to the usual end of the trail, which ends before the traverse to Lone Tree Pass. Here we took another extended break, and stashed some gear under some big rocks.

Resting before the final climb to Lone Tree Pass

Starting up towards Lone Tree Pass shortly after the break

Into the cold shadows and almost to Lone Tree Pass

We started off on the upward traverse to Lone Tree Pass, with the sun shining brightly on us. The climb to the pass went quickly, and the last part of the climb was done in the cold shadows. It had taken us about 4 hours to reach the pass. The route then traversed in snowy woods along the ridge and headed east. The plan here was to ignore the Beckey description of continuing up the ridge; we were going to make our way along the ridge until we reached a gentle descent point (visible on the topo). We would decend through the woods south to where we thought that 'Bear Lake' was located. With the aid of a GPS waypoint, we reached the descent spot, and easily walked down the snowfree wooded slopes until we were standing above Bear Lake (which looks like a small pond along a creek).

We travelled along the ridge east to this flat area, then started down

Descending down through the trees towards Bear Lake

We descended to about this point with tiny Bear Lake below

Above the lake, we then traversed left a hundred feet or so until we came upon a gully (with creek) running down from the ridge. This was to be our route back up to the ridge to start the 'Big Traverse'. (Note: the descent, slight traverse, and ascent back up is necessary due to a cliffy section that is bypassed using this method. Apparently Beckey's route continues over the ridge above this cliffy section, but it seemed to us to involve too much extra futzing around).

Now we would follow this gully back up towards the ridge

We ascended the gully to the base of the ridgetop cliffs onto open slopes. We were now on solid snow, and it was like an ice rink that morning. One of us had crampons, one didn't. We put our heads together for a solution, and decided on the following: The guy with crampons would move ahead quickly, while the hapless soul without would ice-skate his way as best as possible. Crampons are definitely recommended at this point, one should note that later in the afternoon this section was soft.

Back under the ridge, we would start the 'Big Traverse'

Once back up under the ridge, the route is pretty simple. The 'Big Traverse' really starts here, and we made our way across the hard snow slopes, angling slightly up toward a small wooded area. The small wooded patch is visible on the topo, and is where the route turns a small ridge feature. After a short stretch through a wooded area, the rest of the traverse and climb towards High Pass is encountered.

Resting after the traverse and looking up to High Pass

Now the large stone tower which 'guards' High Pass was visible. We made our way out of the wooded section and traversed to a small hillock, where we stopped for a long rest. Here we could look almost directly up the rest of the route to High Pass. It was starting to warm up, but the steep climb would take place in the shade of the tower. The views from here to the Puget Sound area were amazing. It was about 9:30 at this point.

A 2DrX member making the climb up to High Pass

We started up the climb to High Pass, the one with crampons making the best time, and one without going more carefully. Some melted out prints from a goat aided in step-kicking. The climb was steep but not too difficult. A dropped ice-ax (or possibly a body) would slide to Granite Falls. Near the top, the snow had disappeared and about 100 feet of rocky gully made up the remainder of the climb to the pass. It was almost 11:00 am now, and we took another rest on the glacier side of the pass and ate some of our lunch. It had taken us about 7 hours to reach the top of High Pass.

At High Pass - taking a break on the glacier

The views down to the Darrington area were amazing, as well as towards the North Cascades. The rest of the route up to the summit was deceptive; it really is steeper and longer than it looked from the pass. Some wierd rocks were found at High Pass (Some with high copper content were found, complete with bright blue oxidation). The route now was going to be up a couple steps of the glacier, to the top of the snowfinger to the summit in the distance.

The views down to Darrington and North Cascades from High Pass

Looking up towards the rest of our route to the snowfinger

The first step on the glacier was pretty steep

The sun was hot and we were tired. We made slow time up the first steep step of the glacier. Soon we began encountering open crevasses. Yikes! We had no rope, and the sight of the crevasses made us a little anxious. We hopped over the openings on the flats, and on the steep slopes tried to make wide detours around the openings that would catch an unsuccessful self-arrest. This is a real glacier.

The middle part of the glacier was a flat section, still crevassed

After the first steep glacier section, a flat section of the glacier is met. We would now angle left up the last steep section of the glacier towards the final climb along a cornice to the snow finger. Soon we were angling right up the cornice. Wow, this was steep - and sort of overhanging on the lee side! We didn't dare follow the melted out footsteps along the top since it had melted back some. These old steps were just too close to the edge of the cornice for comfort. The opposite side dropped off down a nasty gully, with runout to downtown Darrington.

A 2DrX member nearing the steep cornice section

The final summit snowfinger is reached shortly after the cornice section. After a quick scan of the situation, it was evident that this would be our highest point. The snowfinger had melted back from the steep rock apparently due to the lateness in the season. The resulting moat was too hideous of a proposition to deal with - one could peer over the edge and but only vertical darkness could be seen. There was still a small snow bridge... but without a rope this would be our turnaround. We were short of the summit by maybe 50 to 100 feet of vertical rock. Some runners left above in the rock showed evidence of a previous summit attempt and rappel. It was now about 12:30, and we quickly slid down some sections of the steep glacier, and carefully made our was around the crevasses back to High Pass.

The snowbridge and moat, our turnaround point

The rest of the way back down the route was easier on the sun-softened snow. Instead of dropping back down towards Bear Lake, we diagonally cut up towards the spot that we came down from the ridge at in the morning. We followed a path of sorts, which basically worked up near the cliffy forest section. It was easy to find going up, but to find it for the way down might be impossible. An unintentional cartwheel down Lone Tree Pass, and the hot steep trail brought us back to the trailhead at about 5:30, about 5 hours from our turnaround at the moat.

References:

• Cascade Alpine Guide (green book) - Beckey. Whitehorse routes.
  
• 100 Hikes in Washington's Glacier Peak Region - Manning, Spring. Information on the Neiderprum trail to Lone Tree Pass.
  
• Dingo Mountaineering Whitehorse trip - A good account and pictures.
• Cascadian Mountain Adventures - early season attempt.
• Phil F. and friends - another early season attempt, some funny stuff.
• Mackinaw Mountaineering trip - a short account, also turned back by moat.