Climbing and Skiing Whitehorse Mountain in Darrington
Description:
Anyone who has seen High Ice knows how radical Whitehorse is, for those that haven't you've now got plans for the night - and you are welcome! EPIC.....DANGER.....FIRE AND ICE A MILE HIGH!!!! Could you want to watch anything else? Whitehorse towers above the town of Darrington with nearly 7000' of prominence directly from the valley floor. Its steep with prominent glacier and large cliff faces, every climbers dream. It was also my first official mountaineers climb in 2007 as the Mountaineering season is typically a week or two long in early May, before the bergschrund to the summit melts out. It can be climbed during the winter, but has significant avalanche exposure on all aspects.
The Route and Important Details:
Time: Winter- May
Trailhead: Neiderprum Trailhead
Left Cars at 5 am
Time to High Point: ~8 Hrs
Car to Car: 11-12 hrs
Since 2007 the road has washed out, adding a mile of road walking to the trail. During the winter the standard route is to head more directly up the Whitehorse glacier. During the spring it is easier to head up the standard mountaineers route which follows the trail to the open slopes and ascends directly from there on the north side. After reaching the ridge, the route drops on the southwest slopes and traverses those until reaching an upper saddle From this saddle you wrap back around the north slopes where you can see and ascend the summit block. A bergschrund typically melts out by the first week of May if not early. When I skied it in 2017 on May 7th, almost a year from my first mountaineers ascent, there was a thin bridge over the bergy, but without pickets or a rope we decided not to tempt fate as it was already midday. The ski down was fun with a few fall line pitches and some traversing. Its easier to ski down on the south side and then skin back up, vs trying to traverse the whole way. This is a fun and slightly easier way to ski than the glacier, but the glacier would be a more consistent fall line ski.