Whitehorse Mountain Route Information

Whitehorse Mountain

Map Annotations:

• (A) - Approximately where the Neiderprum trail ends, looking past the dead tree towards Lone Tree Pass.
  
• (B) - Looking back towards the dead tree, making the traverse to Lone Tree Pass.
  
• (C) - Making the last steep climb up and around the corner to Lone Tree Pass.
  
• (D) - East of Lone Tree Pass, this flat area is where we started to descend. Good camping area.
  
• (E) - Starting down in the woods on our descent route to above Bear Lake.
  
• (F) - With Bear Lake in sight, this is where we traversed left a little.
  
• (G) - After traversing, we started up this stream gully back to the ridge.
  
• (H) - Back up at the ridge now, this shot shows the beginning of the 'Big Traverse'.
  
• (I) - Further along the traverse, showing the short wooded area in the distance we would go through.
  
• (J) - The end of the traverse, and the view of the climb up to High Pass.
  
• (K) - Now at High Pass, this shot is taken from the glacier looking back at the High Pass rocks.
  
• (L) - Looking up from High Pass at the rest of the route, summit snowfinger in distance.
  
• (M) - A peek at Three Fingers from halfway up the glacier.

Microsoft TerraServer view of the Big Traverse section. In this shot, Bear Lake can be seen in an open circle of woodsy area in the upper left part of the photo, and the the large fan of talus which leads to High Pass can be seen in the lower right. Not much snow at the time this photo was taken.

Driving:
Drive Highway 530 east from Arlington, 5 miles short of Darrington. Turn right on 387th Ave. NE (Swede Heaven Road), at the Whitehorse Store and gas station. Continue straight on the blacktop road (when driving on the straight portion, the road cut points directly up and at Lone Tree Pass) and then gravel road, which winds around several homes. Now Mine Road, it ascends in the forest (now being clearcut) 1 mile to the trailhead. The road has been rough in the past, and there is one steep rutted section that light rear-wheel drive vehicles might have a problem with. Limited parking at the trailhead (but trail park passes required).

Hiking/Bushwhacking:
Follow the Niederprum trail to the end. The first 2 miles are on pretty good trail, and the last part is not so great. Traverse along open slopes towards Lone Tree Pass and up over the pass onto the ridge. It took us about 4 hours or so with light packs to reach LTP. Continue east along the ridge, following the climber path or flags to a fairly flat area on the ridge (about 10-15 minutes). This would be a nice spot for a ridge camp, with snow for a water source until mid-summer.

From the flat ridge area, head down the wooded slope SW towards Bear Lake. This part was an easy descent through open forest, which was mostly snowfree during our trip. Soon the small basin which holds Bear Lake will come into view. At this point, find the most logical traverse line left, and continue for a few hundred feet until a small gully and creek are reached. This gully should point back up to the ridge where you want to go. Scramble up this gully for a few hundred feet to open slopes, under the cliffs of the ridge. This is the start of the traverse, and the hard snow conditions of early to mid-summer.

Traverse the open slopes towards a small wooded ridge feature (1/2 hour or so.) Go through the wooded section at a convinient point, and drop out of it back on the traverse. At this point the route up to High Pass will be visible, as well as the sentinel which guards it. Continue on the traverse, which then sweeps up into the large gully that culminates at High Pass. Go up over the last rocks and on to the glacier. This took us about 2.5 to 3 hours from Lone Tree Pass to the top of High Pass, moving pretty slow.

The route now is on the glacier. Follow the path of least resistance up a steep step of the glacier to a flat part. The next steep step leads up and along the cornice to the final summit snowfinger. In early season, the snowfinger seems to be climbable to the summit. That was not the case when we made our trip. Allow about an hour from High Pass to the summit snowfinger.

It took us about 5 hours to retrace our route back to the trailhead.