Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board White Mountain - West Ridge 1/17/09

A last minute decision, I decided to head up to White Mountain Peak this past weekend to summit and to see if I could cross paths with Kevin Trieu and his impressive group of climbers. I had seen their itinerary on Outdoorsclub for a 3-day winter ascent up the West Ridge. I'd been wanting to do the West Ridge for some time and since my original weekend plans were scuttled this seemed like a good alternative.

Given that snow on the ridge appeared to be light I opted for a dayclimb (my normal preference). Fortunately the gamble paid off and I summitted and returned in about 18 hours. I parked down at 4775 feet (about a half mile from the Ranch) to ensure (with a few ups and downs on the ridge) that I got a full 10,000 feet of elevation gain. At 15 pounds my pack was rather light for a winter climb but still a bit heavier than I would have liked.

The West Ridge has two branches: one North of Jeffrey Mine Canyon and one to the South. These meet up at around 11,500 feet. I chose the southern branch which is also what Kevin's group took. I would say this is probably the optimal route. I started up the very toe of the ridge where it comes down to the Millner Creek road. There's a short service road that passes by a cell/radio tower. Along the way to the summit are two substantial scree slopes: one starting at 9000 feet and the other at 11000 feet. The one above 11000 feet is particularly memorable.

I started my hike about 4:20am and reached the summit around 2:30pm. This took a bit longer than I hoped but without any acclimation I wasn't as fast as I would have liked. The last 1000 feet of the climb seemed to go on forever. The hut seems tantalizingly close but takes much longer to reach than one might expect. I brought crampons and ice axe but never used them. As I had hoped most of the ridge had been cleared of snow.

The descent down the scree was interesting. Fortunately I reached the 11000 foot saddle just before dark. I few minutes later I reached Kevin's main group setting up camp just below the 11395 foot point on the ridge. In the dark I couldn't tell who was who but got to talk with Kevin and others. It was now completely dark and the rest of my descent from 11000 feet would be by headlamp and GPS. Somewhere around 10500 feet or so I met Scott Swaney and Darija. We had an interesting chat for about 10-15 minutes before I continued down. Although the scree slope above 9000 feet didn't cause me much trouble earlier in the day (during light) it presented a substantial challenge in the dark. Rocks rolled out from under me with every step. Hardened by such terrain I knew the hell would eventually end. Below 9000 feet it was easy going and my pace increased. I finally reached my car at 10:15pm. The West Ridge had proven to be a fun challenge and while its qualities may not please everyone I enjoyed it and am sure I'll do it again. To me its qualities make it a classic.

Photos are here:

White Mountain Peak - 1/17/09

-Rick

You know, I wondered if you were heading that direction after your e-mail last week looking for recent pics...

Outstanding, Rick! For as long as I have been staring at that ridge, perhaps it's time to put up or shut up... Congratulations!

-L

Sweet! makes me want to go summit this thing again soon

Though at this time of year I don't think sleeping on the peak would be as pleasant as it was in August.

Any idea what the normal dirt road conditions are like?

There wasn't much snow so the conditions right now aren't much different than they would be in early summer. The route up to 9000 feet is easy going. Above that things get tougher. The scree slope at 9000 feet isn't too bad. The one above 11000 feet will test your commitment. Above that there's some fun/easy class 3 along the ridge top. Approaching the summit there's a lot of loose stuff again which makes for a nice exhausting finish. Overall expect quite a bit of loose terrain.

18 hours seems awfully slow.....

Nice going Rick! So where does this rank among your day climbs?

Truly amazing pictures and quite a feat!

18 hours IS slow! I've seen others say this route was harder than Cactus to Clouds and Shorty's Well to Telescope Peak. I'm not sure I agree with that. Then again I've done all these hikes all the way up and back without car shuttles/trams so my comparison may be a little different. So, not to say that it was easy, but I don't think it was quite as hard as a lot of the hikes I've done. Anything less than 20 hours doesn't qualify as an "epic". With at least a little acclimation and more daylight I would expect to be able to do it in about 15 hours. I lost quite a bit of time coming down in the dark.

Thank you for posting. Now I can revisit vicariously (or maybe one day on foot!) through your route.
My only summit of White Mtn, someone made a remark to me that "it did not count as a 14'er because the hike was via jeep trail."
My recollection of White Mtn. will always be that it has a stark beauty and scenery / views to put it in a class as high as its altitude.

Blooty.. my understanding of the "rules" is that so long as there is some exertion at elevation it counts as being that elevation... And it may have been a jeep trail... but you still HIKED it.. not like you drove up to 14.. right?

When I was on the summit in the evening an old jeep was on it's way to the peak and I was excited to get a photo of it on the peak in the sunset but unfortunately a small snow field at the bottom of the last stretch stopped them from making it

Researchers have it too easy.

Here it is

RickK,

Outstanding as usual and way to get the New Year started off on the “white” foot

Cheers,
RickG

Rick
Just curious, do know the mileage?
First 14

The proper response to that is either a swift kick to the shins or a sound beating about the head and shoulders with a shovel. Your choice, really.

I dare that person to tell Bob Coomber that.

-L

Hey Rick,

One of the guys in my group pulled a Freudian slip and referred to you as Clark Kent. In any case, it was good running into you. It was defnitely unexpected as I thought I was going to have the Whites to myself. Running into some dude (before recognizing you) at around 5pm at 11,000 feet on some obscure peak in winter was kind of freaky.

So as I was running through my climbing data, I finally remember where I met you, Snow Creek. Funny how you run into people in the most obscure places. I remember running into Bob Burb on the 10,000 foot ridge on Boundary Peak last winter.

Laura, Thanks for the photos of the Whites. It was a little bit of a concern that there's not that much snow on the whole ridge because that was our only source of water for three days.

Kevin

You're welcome, Kev-bo. Sorry I couldn't join up with you guys! I was waving from the other side of the valley and dreamin' away...

Water? Didn't Scott haul 10 gallons in his pack?

-L

You never know where I might show up ... he he. I did the same thing on that Snow Creek climb ... no one knew I was coming. In a way I was kinda playing a trick on you. I figured it might be humorous to see that I had signed into the register just the day before. The problem was that I knew we would likely cross paths on the narrow ridge. I had considered a descent via Millner Canyon but that seemed like a lot of trouble and in the end I was rather looking forward to meeting up with you and the others.

First14,

The mileage is fairly short and depends on where you start. It's about 7 miles from the lower tip of the southern branch of the west ridge to the summit. I parked an additional mile away to add on an additional 400-500 feet of elevation gain so my roundtrip was about 16 miles. Oh, and I had an extra mile on top of that because after I hiked up the road 1/2 mile I realized I forgot my ice axe and had to go back and get it. Doh!

Nice work! I have a few questions:

What type of boots did you use?

Also, with little to no snow cover is it possible to do this hike (within next 10 days) in trail runners (with gore-tex) ?

Thanks.

I did spend some time debating which boots to use. Typically around this time of year when snow is involved I'll wear my La Sportiva Trango EVO boots or if it's really cold my La Sportiva Nepal Extremes. Because the weather report indicated it would be unusually mild and there wasn't much snow I just wore leather goretex boots and I'm glad I did. My feet never got cold. If I could do it again under the same exact conditions I might even opt for my light summer boots (not much different than trail runners). The only issue is that you will cross a lot of small snow patches which tend to result in getting snow in the top of the shoe/boot. I also brought gaiters but was lazy and never put them on. So, yes if you're just going to dayhike during the day when it's warmer you could probably get by with trail runners. That might be pushing it with an overnighter however since the morning temps up high will be in the teens.