Haldan Borglum | Peak by Peak

Following our 7km bike in to the end of Kinney Lake we ditched them at the bike rack and continued on foot along the older washed out trail. Ian had received some useful intel from Rick Thiessen when he made a solo ascent of Whitehorn a few weeks prior and as a result we knew with a few braided stream crossings we could avoid the 3km detour to reach Whitehorn Campground before backtracking to the ascent route. The crossings were quite shallow and what would've been the deepest one still had a bridge so this was definitely the way to go and once we were back on trail we ditched the wet shoes and soon reached the giant scree slope that gains a solid 600m before arriving at a treed alpine meadow area.

The scree slope was long but ascending wasn't the worst as we found a runnel with more solid rock that didn't have us slipping around much. What we couldn't see was how truly huge it is since it was still before dawn so this was a rude awakening on our way down many hours later. The treed alpine meadow bench was a nice rest from the rocky terrain and covered good distance before reaching the valley end and sending us more north towards the bivy site.

After taking our first break at the tarn a bit over 4 hours in we headed for the ledge traverse and worked our way up the following slope before reaching the final difficulty to gain the ridge. There are a large amount of cliffy features to the south of the upper mountain but we were able to find a break that we could gain and after a few 5th class moves were above it and made our way for the ridgeline. From this point the hands on terrain became much more frequent especially as we got higher and the views opened up as we neared the first high point of the upper mountain.

Once we reached the first high point things definitely got more exciting! The steep summit block looked quite intimidating from afar but as we got closer it looked more reasonable, still serious though! The ridge gets quite narrow but is low angle to start making for quick travel aside from a bypass or two of awkward drop offs on the ridgeline. After some fun ridge walking with amazing views we reached where the more technical terrain and things picked up quickly!

The first step was quite airy but had easier terrain to follow, but after this section we detoured to climber's left of the ridge for a more reasonable line up the next step before encountering our first snow obstacle on route. Where the snow was sticking around was between a spire feature and the next section of ridge we had to get to and the exposure below to the east was huge so this was definitely the toughest part of our ascent. I managed to solo it but Ian didn't have footwear with as much grip as my approach shoes so I belayed him up this section as well as one last difficulty following before we took our final steps to the summit!

For our descent, given that there was good tat placed above all the difficulties on the upper ridge we opted to rappel a few of the tougher steps near the summit, I did 2 while Ian did 4-5 to get back to the more tame section of ridge. After getting down that steeper portion of the mountain we were out of the hardest terrain but the toughest part about the descent of Whitehorn was the mental endurance you need for the sizable amount of 5th class and ankle breaking scree terrain on the way down. After dropping below the initial high point on the ridge there was still a lot of 5th class descending yet to come which took a couple hours to get through without any rappels so you've gotta be on your game for a long time on this peak! After getting below the steep step to initially gain the ridge the hands on terrain was done for the day but we still had a large amount of scree and loose terrain to descend and had the 600m scree slope waiting for us at the very end before the bike out to look forward to.

Descending the scree slope was by far the worst part of this trip and was one of the nastiest places I've found myself in pursuing the 11000ers so far. The combination of awkwardly sized rock that you cant easily bootski / slide on all sitting on top of hard packed dirt makes for an extremely dangerous end to a long day and Ian and I had to be on our game to make sure we didn't launch any rocks into each other, break an ankle, or going hurtling down the slope. About half way down we were able to cross to the skier's left side on scree to treed terrain where Steven Song had descended, and while we didn't actually go into the trees the somewhat grassy terrain beside was far better than what we were suffering through above. After getting down that sketchy slope we were happy to be able to finally mentally relax and all that was left was a short walk with a few crossings and a cruisy 7km bike out to the parking lot!

Our trip to get Whitehorn Mountain in a day is definitely one I'll remember for a long time! The upper mountain and ridge are great but it's too bad that the standard route goes up such a garbage scree slope. If I were to do it again I'd definitely opt for the SE glacier route instead to avoid this and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the faster way to get the peak done as well with how smooth glacier travel is compared to rubble navigating. This route isn't very well documented but Dr. Dirtbag used it for his descent of the peaks and has one of the only reports with information on it, check it out here.

Given that there was still at least one more day of good weather forecasted and I was already near Jasper I wanted to go for another 11000er in the north the day after Whitehorn but I was far too exhausted for another outing the following day. However when I saw that the 31st would also be a good window I hit up William Hammond and after a chill rest day in Jasper we met up in the middle of the night for another epic 11000er day trip!