• Destination: Whitehorse Mountain (6840')
• Date: May 24, 2011
• Starting Point: Mine Road washout (c.600')
• High Point: Whitehorse Mountain (6840')
• Round Trip Distance: c.10 miles
• Equipment: The ten essentials, ice axe, rope
• Difficulties: Route finding, steep snow, bergschrund crossing
• Team:  Holli Collins and Steve Trent

The forecast for the entire week had the dark and stormy icons with the associated over fifty percent chance of rain. The only exception was Tuesday; it had the mostly cloudy icon, or was it the partly sunny icon. Anyway, I had the alpine itch to scratch and knew that Holli was keen on summiting Whitehorse.
Whitehorse looms over the cutesy town of Darrington, dominating the landscape and view from just about anywhere in the Stillaguamish Valley. It can be a real grind getting up and back in one day; most parties elect to make it a two day affair.

Since we were only able to get one day off, it was decided to make it a one day slog. We were unable to talk anybody else into participating; the excuses were flying. In retrospect, they were the smart ones not wanting to take a chance on not summiting.

We wanted to get an early start, so drove Speedy (the VW campervan) over to Mine Road in Darrington for some quality sleep the night prior. When the alarm went off at 0530, the patter or rain was still prevalent. It is hard to get motivated for alpine abuse when it is still dark, but throw rain in on top of that and it is near impossible to get moving. After some hemming and hawing, we finally got ourselves rousted and walking.

Mine Road is washed out about a mile prior to the Niederprum Trail. After hoofing it up the road, the rain stopped when we got to the trailhead. Snow covered the trail starting at 4000 feet, and it got deep quick.

Luckily for us, on Saturday there were three groups on this route who had kicked steps all the way to the summit. If those steps had not been there, we would have had a much tougher day.
After following the steps up to the So-Bahli-Ahli Glacier, we were stopped by an impressive overhanging bergschrund. After a belayed end run around and some steeper snow, we stood at the top. We were just above the overcast, and saw our first blue sky of the climb. After relaxing a bit, we rappelled over the bergschrund and followed our tracks down. After a few exciting glissades and tromping down the trail, we were back at Speedy. Twelve hours and fifteen minutes round trip, including forty-five minutes at the summit.
A great day with a cool summit!