With a 2 day weekend and a decent weather forecast, Jim and I headed out with Deb and Steve to attempt Whitehorse. It has been on our list ever since we watched “High Ice” together. “High Ice” is a very cheesy movie done in 1980 which involved a mountain rescue on Whitehorse. The movie does involve a helicopter crash high on the mountain. During the filming, they ended up crashing 2 helicopters in order to get all the footage.
Whitehorse ends in a very steep snow to rock transition. Unsure what we were going to get, we brought both snow and rock protection.
As we headed up the steep climbers trail, the sun was shining and we were optimistic of our chances.
Soon we popped out of the forest to snow cover and views of Darrington.
The trip was not without its slide alder bushwhack.
After 4800 feet of climbing, we crested the ridge only to find the glacier socked in with a dense, cold marine fog. Add the wind and it was down right yucky.
We did get to our camp spot and setup our tents before we decided to pull the plug and head home. Whitehorse would have to wait for another day.
Once back over the ridge, we looked back to see all the clouds socking in the upper mountain.
The day turned out to be a pretty intense training hike. 7 hours up / 5 hours down. 4800 feet of gain with full packs.