[Tom_Sjolseth]

Iron, Hotpantz, Justus_S and I converged at the P&R this morning at 5AM for what was to turn out to be another fabulous day in the N Cascades. This would be my second summit of Whitehorse in the past 9 months, but the chance to do it again with some good friends was too good to pass up. We arrived at the TH at 6:15AM and packed our stuff. Being June, err February, the temps at the TH were in the low 40s with clear skies looming above. We headed out with headlamps at 6:30, walking the 1 mile up the road and gaining 350' to the TH. From here, someone set a blistering pace and heart palpitations ensued! You aint tryin if you aint dyin I think is how the saying goes.. The vertical feet came off quickly and soon we were at snowline (roughly 3800'). From here, it was another 1100 feet to Lone Tree Pass in firm then wind deposited snow. From the pass, you lose about 500' of elevation and traverse to the SE across several basins. Well apparently we decided one basin was enough, and cut up the first gully we came to. I, having climbed this route before, should have recognized we were heading the wrong direction, but things were going so smoothly, and it "felt" right, so how could we possibly go wrong? We topped out 800' later amid steep drops and gorgeous views. We then climbed another 200' onto a little sub-summit after a steep, hairy traverse only to find out we were in the wrong spot! The summit was about a mile to the East. Whoops! Having figured that out, the 1000' descent back to the proper route went quite a bit faster than the ascent, thanks to a fast glissade. Once back on track, we continued our traverse to the SE under clear, sunny skies and temps in the 50s (February?). We then found the proper gully to High Pass and booted up it in soft snow. Once atop High Pass, we continued traversing SE to the summit plateau. The snow was soft, and we were postholing to our calves most of the way. It firmed up right below the summit block, and we climbed steep slopes (to 60 degrees) up to the true summit. We sat on the windless summit soaking in the views before reluctantly heading down about 45 minutes after we arrived. One person was belayed down while the rest of the team downclimbed. Once back to our stuff, we hightailed it out of there to beat the sunset. We made it safely back to the forest before dusk and used headlamps for the last hour of the descent. All in all this was an unbelievable February day with a fun group on a beautiful peak. Stats 12 miles 8700' gain (with "minor" routefinding snafu) 12.5 hours of time spent with a great group of friends

Looking up at the summit block from High Pass.

Views across the summit plateau.

Iron giving the thumbs up.

Looking down into greater downtown Darrington from the summit plateau.

A sea of peaks beyond.

The group ascending from High Pass.

The shadow of Whitehorse looms over Darrington.

Climbers' shadows.

Iron and untouched snow.

Iron and Hotpantz climbing up to a false summit for a better view.

Justus with a big smile.

Justus, Iron, and Hotpantz ascending the final slope below the summit.

The cornice at the summit ridge.

Justus pulling over the cornice.

Thumbs up from Justus on the summit of Whitehorse.

Virgin snow.

Looking back to our tracks above High Pass.

One parting shot before the descent.

A celebratory glissade.

[EastKing]

You all are total beast!! Looking at doing Whitehorse in March.

[Dansjolseth]

While I'm on the plains of Botswana in 105 degree dry heat you're in heaven. The pictures are fabulous and I am truly envious.

[Tom]

Great Shots!

[peltoms]

Awesome summit ridge, who would have thought Whitehorse in February

[silence]

awesome pix ..ha i was wondering who'd be the first up .. not surprised in the least

[Layback]

Geat pics Tom. I suspected that the snow level would be about the same as the day we both climbed it last May. Looks like it was pretty darn close. I wish I could have been there with you guys. Good stuff!!

[Jimbo]

Still have to park at the bridge ?

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Jimbo, Yes the road is still gated at the bridge over Moose Creek. It only adds about a mile or so and 350' of gain.

[iron]

my thoughts for the day!

whew. what an enjoyable, challenging day. when "someone" started off the day at mach 3, and i was working to keep up, i knew it was going to be a long one --- too much hard biking this week i guess.

morning light and warm temps reminding us of summer conditions

emerging out of the woods and staring at lone tree pass

when we reached the top of the sightseeing detour gully, and it was still early, i smugly thought to myself how easy whitehorse was. then there was the traverse, and the slow trudging, and then finally the realization we were not on route. d'oh! nonetheless, the views from the sightseeing location were fabulous and imposing and nearly the best of the day.

the gully up to the sightseeing detour

looking down the sightseeing detour gully

the first part of our sightseeing detour today

hotpantz and her slender sunlit arm

part 2 of the sightseeing detour - a challenging looking objective

tom and justus heading up for some more sightseeing

and i do mean up

the completion of the sightseeing detour - aka our final objective!

this completes our portion of the sightseeing detour. please return to where you came from

large blocky monolith

this is february, right?

the slopes leading to the "real" high pass were humbly huge. awesome sight!. at high pass, it was jaw dropping. acres and acres of untouched powder with a nice little summit tucked in amongst the shadows. this whole area made me want to run around and play, and i got to do a little of that until having to succomb to summit fever.

a more promising route emerges

heading up to the real high pass

big basins make small hotpantz's

target objective and a lot of untouched powder!

tom sets off

a sunlit horse

expansive

nearing the final ridge

i just had to go and play on this bump!

a little more dramatic relief with significantly less snow cover on the south side of the mountain

three fingers

the team splits paths

should've bagged this sub-summit too while we were here

tiny climbers

entering the shadow, never to be seen again

it's hard to move forward when this kind of beauty is behind you

the last couple trips with tom (thornton and seward) help prepare me well for the actual climbing portion of this trip. i kind of chuckled to myself while ascending the steep snow when i realized we were in the 60 degree slope range yet again. i think my lesson is that any trip with tom will involve some kind of steep snow/ice climbing, even though this trip was more my idea. at least this time i felt comfortable enough to pull out my camera and get some perspective shots while at the steep portion.

tom decides it would be wise to put on crampons before he steps onto the 65 degree part of the climb

looking north as it steepened

looking south as it steepened

justus, hotpantz, cloud shadows, and darrington (the city) below

awesome boot line and hotpantz

justus ascending the chopped-out cornice

tom and justus claimed the summit first, and i followed. we lowered the rope down to hotpantz for a belay and she performed quite impecably given this was essentially a new kind of climbing and exposure for her. i was quite ecstatic for her successful summit this day!

hotpantz' turn to claim the summit!

enjoying the sun on FEBRUARY 6!

tom's cornice chopping skillz

more skillz

one interesting part of the climb was while we were all on the summit and freeing the rope from the groove it had dug. because the access to the summit ridge was 20' west of where we anchored the belay, so too was the rope when hotpantz came up. tom and i pulled both ends in a sawing like motion and quickly sliced through about 20' of cornice. pretty neat. views from the top were stellar. it's a little discouraging to see the lack of snow, but at the same time, it was pretty damn nice to be on this kind of trip at the start of february. baker felt like it was in darrington's backyard and the views of the puget sound made me wish i was kayaking. what a wonderful place to live!

colorful clouds to the south

checking out the surroundings on her glissade

happy to descend that 1000' in a skirt

big tree shadow and the puget sound

back at the "lake" and ready for the final ascent. only 5' deep snow at this basin

[raising3hikers]

Great pics and awesome effort to everybody

[the Zachster]

NICE!!! Too bad it's so much work to enjoy such an awesome glissade!

[Jimbo]

Thanks....

[loper]

WAHOO! I think that says it all!! L

[kite]

sweet trip report, you make it look so easy!!