Most trips to the North Cascades involves a drive through Arlington and Darrington. Every trip involves me asking Jim “What peak is that?!” as we drive past Whitehorse Mountain. It sticks up in the middle of farm land. Towering over the few near by peaks.
We attempted Whitehorse a few years back with Deb and Steve but after climbing to base camp in high clouds. The clouds settled into camp. The weather report for the next day quickly deteriorated. With a depressing evening in front of us, we all voted to pickup camp and go home. Returning to Whitehorse has been the top of our springtime climbing list ever since. Whitehorse has a small climbing window because once the breach in the snow on the summit rock forms, the summit block becomes extremely difficult.
With the beautiful weather Wednesday and Thursday, Jim and I decided to head out. The trail into base camp is an old miners trail. These trails are typically just slightly better than a climber’s path which goes straight up hill. Miners were a hardy bunch. I had a hard enough time getting my modern day, 42lb pack up to the miner’s basin some 3000ft from the parking lot. I can’t imagine how they got all their gear up there. Way to steep for livestock.
Just before the basin, we finally got a look at the summit. From here, everything looked crazy steep. Good thing we were not going up the face.
The basin marks the end of the miner’s trail and the start of a long traverse to Lone Tree pass. Not sure who named it Lone Tree. It is a completely wooded area.
Once at the pass, we had a 15 minute traverse to the one large flat area on the entire route. This is where everyone camps. Whitehorse is probably the only climb where you could agree to meet in camp and not possibly get confused about where you were camping.
We had our pick of camp spots so Jim dug out a platform in the center of the ridge giving us one of the best view camps. The north cascades were quite a distance away so you could see everything north to the Canadian Border. Pretty amazing!
We had no need to set an alarm. The morning sun beamed directly into our tent.
Jim and I took our typical hour and half to get out of camp. I am always amazed at how slow we are.
The route involved a long traverse on the south side of the mountain in the trees. No views for the next hour. Eventually we broke out of the tree in a snow filled basin and began booting up the snow toward the ridge and High Pass.
High Pass marks the second flat spot on the entire route. I am sure every climbing team takes a break here.
There was no doubt what the route to the summit was. Just follow all the tracks in the snow.
The snow here got mushy but not slidy. As we trudged over toward the summit block, I found myself missing the firm snow in the view-less trees.
As we got closer to the summit block, it became clear that the snow was continuous to the summit on the left side of the snow field. This was good news. We had brought some rock gear but after looking at the summit block, we certainly didn’t want to have to climb any of the rock. It was scary steep.
We took a minute to rope up and get out snow gear then Jim headed up the left side of the snow.
The higher Jim got the more vertical the snow slope became.
I heard Jim yell out when he cleared the snow and rock lip signaling he had reached the summit.
Jim had climbed Whitehorse 20+ years ago without a camera. Very unusual for Jim. He was happy to be taking it all in once again.
Since Whitehorse Mountain sits in the middle of farm land, the views seem endless. Complete 360 degrees. We could see the Olympics, Mt Rainier, Mt Stewart, Glacier Peak, Mt Baker, and the American Chilliwack Mountains which sit on the Canadian Border. We definitely took our time enjoying the summit. We probably would have spent more time but there was no comfortable rocks to sit on. Everything seemed pointy.
Three Fingers Mountain is the closest peak to Whitehorse. Jim says there is a trail up the other side.
After 30 minutes of enjoying the views, we decided it was time to head down. We had planned to hike out today something we regretted about 4 hours later.
It was great to be able to rappel off the summit. We had enough rope to get us past the breach in the snow. From there, it was easy to descend the steep face. The snow was easy booting. Had it been any warmer, we would have been worried about the face sliding.
We found a nice route back to camp. Then packed up and said goodbye to the view. The descent was painfully slow. The snow was getting soft. The trail seemed 10 times steeper. Jim kept reminding me that the best part of climbing Whitehorse Mountain is we never have to go back up the miner’s trail.