With a dreary weather forecast, a new climbing buddy Peter McBride and I set our sights on Jumbo Mountain (elev. 5,840’). Jumbo sits just east of that more well-known sentinel peak of Darrington - Whitehorse. Neither of us had climbed Jumbo before and the scant route description and foreboding weather motivated me to seek out some reliable route beta. SAC’s own Andy Dewey (THANKS!) and Darrington local Greg Newberry came through with excellent info. Greg (pseudo-retired) decided he could free up his busy schedule to serve as our guide, likely preventing a very frustrating day of route finding in the fog that enshrouded our objective.

Having listened to the rain hammer down all night, our eagerness and optimism were quite subdued. However, there was only light mist with fog when we left the car on Squire Creek Road just before the big landslide (elev. 1,200’) @ 8:00. We walked about ½ mile of road before heading east into the woods on the “trail”. This old miners’ trail requires constant vigilance or you’ll be “shwacking and swearing” and looking for reasons to turn back. We essentially followed the approach described by Becky for the West Route, but there are a few discrepancies (I know, you’re shocked to hear this). Probably the biggest omission is that we ended up ascending a waterfall for about 600’-800’ BEFORE coming to the MAJOR fork in the drainage, wherein we take lesser dry left fork and ascend 200’-300’ before stumbling upon “the large conifer with an “X” on the uphill side” surrounded by second growth.

We next endure a few hundred feet of nasty blow down atop this ridge, before kicking back out into the main drainage, ultimately transitioning into snow. This gully terminates at a headwall with reddish-colored rock (Dunnite?) where our route traverses southeast towards a tight snow gully. It was snowing at this point and, coupled with the fog, our visibility was limited to about 30’ at times. The snow in the gully was stable, so we ascend and blindly head for the alpine basin leading to the summit. With Greg’s knowledge of the route, we trustingly labored upward and to find the exact spot on the ridge crest just north of the middle peak. Small cornices seemed to alternate on either side of this steep ridge, so we carefully picked our way around the east side, regained the ridge and scrambled onto the summit – HURRAY! The views from the summit were non-existent, so we shared food, told stories, read the summit register and farted (I did anyway!). Jumbo only sees a few parties/year and we were apparently the first party up this year.

After lunch, we made haste, glissading as much as we can to avoid the nasty post holing. The occasional sucker hole yielded momentary glimpse of our route and views across to the lower flanks of Whitehorse, but nothing lasting. Once off the snow, we utilized trusty “vegetation rappels” to carefully pick our way down the creek beds. Since we were skunked on alpine scenery, we turned our attention to the close in marvels of nature including colorful vegetation, bizarre colored rocks, and monster old-growth trees of various species. Our evening finished up with dinner and drinks at Greg’s wonderful house outside of Darrington with picture window views (normally) of Jumbo and Whitehorse. The fog, rain and snow were persisting up there, but it was good feeling to know we had just penetrated this shroud to attain the infrequently visited summit.

Stats: Total elevation gain = 4,900’ RT; 1^st snow @ 3,500’

Gear: Ice axe, lots of warm clothes, raingear, 10 essentials