May 9, 2017, Whitehorse

Ventured up the standard NW shoulder climbers route with low expectations.  Fun trip down memory lane as my first real alpine climb was of Whitehorse nearly 10 years to the day.   

Trail is easy to follow albeit with some obstacles and slide alder wrestling rounds, until it isn't and ends in typical flag following brush bash for a short while, clearly has turned more into a climbers trail with no maintenance since the road to the TH washed out in 2008 ( adding 1.2 miles) - but honestly isn't that bad.  Hit open area and snow at 2700' and is rather straightforward to Lone Tree pass which tops out around 5000' - lots of wet slide debris everywhere and didn't appear to freeze overnight making skinning challenging and booting also brutal, we swapped back and forth all day but in generally it was very exhausting travel conditions.  The backside up to high pass was mostly firm and skinnable with ski crampons until the steeper push - We skinned nearly to the bergy where we were met with a sagging snowbridge spanning a 12' across and 20' deep chasm.  Though we did have ropes and harness we hadn't brought pickets and didn't want to tempt fate in what didn't look like a very solid bridge under the 1pm sun.  So skied down and the skiing was much better than expected.   best stuff was coming down from high pass    I wouldn't expect the bridge to last long.

Essentially shorts and T-Shirt from car to car.