Whitehorse

[Alpine_Tom]

Leejams and I attempted it this Sunday. It kicked our butts (I'm 0 - 4 on this peak!)

The snow is VERY high up -- it looks more like October than February up there. We did the Whitehorse glacier route, and bushwhacked up the left side to about 2200 feet, when we finally got onto snow. This took about two hours. It seemed to me that the trail was better marked with survey tape than it was last time I was up here six years ago. Maybe because Nelson has it in his newer book, so it gets done more frequently?

We ended up turning around at around 4600 feet, when it became clear that we couldn't summit and get down again before dark. Our plan had been to descend the Niederbrum trail, but I was were worried that it might not be identifiable, and we REALLY didn't want to be stumbling around there in the dark.

So we descended the right side of the bowl (climbers right) thinking that it looked less nasty from below. We were wrong, we slogged and slipped and banged ourselves up, descending the trees.

The good news is that, once you get up above the brush, the snow is pretty deep and in very good shape. It's a fun climb, if you can get deal with the approach. (Spend long enough in the devils club, and slide alder doesn't seem so bad!)

 

I'd recommend holding off on this route until April or May, when (hopefully) there's more snow cover, and the days are longer. It's a big mountain.

 

[Billygoat]

Thanks. I'll definitely put it on the back burner.

[leejams]

Tom, just read this and brought back painful reminders of that shwack. Definately, the way to go this year is that trail to lone tree pass. Watching the avvie conditions for a repeat this weekend possibly?

[Alpine_Tom]

I think I finished picking the last of the devils club thorns out of my hands yesterday. Seriously. I think I've learned the "bring your gloves" lesson, though.

In any event, I'm not free this weekend. I do have all the photos back, though. And your ski poles.