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| Whitehorse Mountain Photo Credit: Kevinsa (summitpost.com) |
Memorial day was looking very nice for a one day ascent. I had seen several trip reports showing good route conditions, including a video featuring a paragliding descent and car to car record time of 6:18.
The route requires just over 7000 ft of vertical, most of which is bushwhacking or snow travel. Winds were forecasted to be very light for the entire morning, and I decided it would be worth it to bring my paraglider to hopefully avoid the brutal descent. My pack weighed in at 35 pounds with my full-sized wing and reversible harness. I didn't have much other technical gear besides aluminum crampons, trekking poles, a helmet, and a rappel line/mountain harness for getting off the summit block.
I got about 5 hours of sleep and woke up at 2am to drive out to Darrington. I started hiking from the Neiderprum Trailhead just after 3:45 am. The first few thousand feet of vertical went by fast. The trail was actually worn in decently well and I didn't need to stop at all. Once I started traversing across the open slopes near 3500 ft the travelling slowed down dramatically with no trail to follow and lots of bushwhacking through nasty devils club. Even with the slowdowns I was surprised by how fast I was moving, and decided to push myself in the slight chance that I could beat the car to car record of 6:18.
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| First views of Whitehorse just after sunrise |
I reached snow slopes at around 4000 ft and worked my way up to the ridge where I met a few people who had come up the day before and were camping out before pushing towards the summit. We exchanged a few words and I continued on. The ridge traverse went fast until I went too high and got cliffed out which required some backtracking. I graciously followed one climbing team's steps up snow slopes on the South face before passing them on the ridge and traversing the final section across the ice cap towards the summit block.
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| Views of 3 Fingers from snow slopes on the South Face |
I reached the summit block at around 9am and dropped my paragliding gear at the base. The snow was melted out near the top and a large moat had opened up preventing direct access to the summit. I was prepared for this and hopped onto the rock to solo some low 5th class up to the ridge before traversing on to the summit. The views were exceptional and the position was very exposed.
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| Views of 3 Fingers from the summit |
After a short time enjoying the summit I set up a rappel and lowered down onto the snow. The snow conditions were soft and forgiving by mid-morning, and there was no need for an ice ax or crampons. My rope was just barely too short to get past the moat, but it was easy to step across a small bridge and plunge step down the slope to rendezvous with my paragliding gear.
I quickly laid out my wing and set up for the flight. Conditions were near perfect with almost no wind, and I was barely able to do a running reverse launch. The other climbers met up with me just as I was taking off.
Video of the final climb & paragliding flight
The flight lasted for 30 minutes, and I enjoyed flying close to the terrain because there was no wind to be concerned about. Views of 3 fingers and the surrounding peaks were incredible. It felt great knowing that I got to cheat and wouldn't need to hike back down the 7k of vertical. I had a smooth landing in an empty lot .5 miles from the trailhead. Quickly I packed up and speed-walked back to my car arriving before 11am with a car to car time of 7:03.
