Beta on Whitehorse Glacier

[hakioawa]

Planning a quick jaunt up Whitehorse tomorrow; going by way of the "Whitehorse Glacier" route in the Nelson guide. Nelson recommends only crampons and ice axe. Many of the TRs use full glacier gear. Any recommendations?

[DPS]

We roped up because we thought we saw a crevasse or two.

[powdrx]

I skinned and skied Whitehorse in May 2008. We brought a 30m-8mm rope as a just in case, but no gear ever came out of the bag. We booted up through the avalanche gully and once out of there we skinned 95% of the whole thing with a couple sections of booting. It is a great ski!! Have fun.

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/aaronch76/080501WhitehorseMountainClimbAndSki#5195848881384941458

 

[curtveld]

In the last couple of days, I spent a bit of time contemplating the same route this weekend but decided that avy risks were not favorable. Not telling what to do or not do, but something to consider.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Planning a quick jaunt up Whitehorse tomorrow; going by way of the "Whitehorse Glacier" route in the Nelson guide. Nelson recommends only crampons and ice axe. Many of the TRs use full glacier gear. Any recommendations?

 

We brought full glacier gear but never roped up. We climbed the route in late April.

 

 

[hakioawa]

In the last couple of days, I spent a bit of time contemplating the same route this weekend but decided that avy risks were not favorable. Not telling what to do or not do, but something to consider.

 

Yes, I've been thinking the same thing. My guess is that it will either be a)Obvious avy danger, in which case we'll bail b)super soupy, in which case we'll bail c) Not too bad and we'll summit.

[curtveld]

My guess is that it will either be a)Obvious avy danger, in which case we'll bail b)super soupy, in which case we'll bail c) Not too bad and we'll summit.

[nekopunch]

I was in a group of five which attempted Whitehorse via the standard route a couple weekends ago on 5/22. There was continuous snow from ~2800ft and considerable avy danger on the traverse between LTP and High Pass. Numerous wide sections of our tracks had been covered by slides by the time we returned from the summit. We didn't rope up on the glacier. The schrund at the summit block was wide open, so we stopped there and did not tag the true summit due to concerns about avy conditions on the return. We brought two 30m ropes, pickets, snowshoes, shovels, crampons, and ice axes, none of which were truly needed up to that point.

 

I will PM to you (and to anyone else who requests it) a link to the full photo album. Hope that helps.

[hakioawa]

Managed a VERY slow summit of WH via the standard route. I'll echo nekopunch's comments above. TONS of wet slow moving sluffs the whole way between Lone Tree and High Pass. I don't think these posed significant danger, but going was slow. Once at High Pass, the glacier was pretty solid. We roped up, though probably didn't need to. A couple of the big cracks were starting to open up.

 

The schrund was 95% open, but there was a slight step across on the far left. We had a 30m and put in on picket between the schrund and the summit. Steep, good snow. The last 8' feet has a little ice. Found an anchor on top and belayed down. My guess is the schrund will be impassible within a week, if not by the end of the weekend.

 

Brought:

pickets - used

snowshoes - used, but shouldn't have

30m - used

crampons - not used

 

Good times!

[video:youtube]