With a team of eleven great folks and Bruce Frank leading the ranks, we had a excellent adventure on Whitehorse mountain on Sunday.  Whitehorse is burly climb involving 6,600' vertical gain in 12 miles of distance that would include graded trail, backcountry and high alpine terrain.  We set our alpine start at 5:30am to insure our success.  Snow conditions were excellent and we made steady progress without the aid of snowshoes.  By 9:00am, we had reached Lone tree Pass and by 11:30am, we were are High Pass.  Weather was excellent and views were spectacular.

Just below the summit, we were impeded by a known bergschrund with a questionable snowbridge.  To get around this, Bruce roped up and led a route for the summit with the assistance of a belay.  To prevent the collapse of the snowbridge, Bruce utilized a self-described "beached whale belly-mantle weight dispersion" technique, known to no-one but himself.  It was successful, and the fragile snowbridge held his weight.  Soon a prussik line was formed and we were on our way.  Good progress was made, but precious time eroded way as we worked the summit block.

On summit, our celebration was dampened (literally) by inclement weather approaching from the south.  The horizon was dark and thick with rolling clouds heading our way.  The tell-tale streaks below the clouds were signs that rain was a coming.  With little warning, it started to drizzle on us.  This was a cause for concern, since we were at the highest point for many miles around.  Bruce orchestrated an organized and efficient rappel procedure, but with eleven people on the summit, this was to take time.  Eventually everyone was off the summit block just in time to see the storm move the the west of us.  The would-be storm was ultimately a non-event and made for good drama and pictures.

With some excellent glissades, we made a quick descent.  We were at the cars by 6:45pm.