Trip Report
White Chuck Mountain/Northwest Route
Beautiful fall scramble to White Chuck Mountain, but the drive to TH was long and rough :)
Ambrose Zhi
- Sat, Oct 12, 2024
- White Chuck Mountain/Northwest Route
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road rough but passable
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Road to TH is long and rough. There were several big potholes, but they could be easily navigated around or through as long as you drive through them slowly.
Some rock slabs were wet on the scramble route, but most of them could be bypassed. Also, fall foliage was in full force at White Chuck.
We studied Dennis Kiilerich's trip report from 2023, and it was very helpful. Navigation was tricky, but there's a boot path pretty much the whole way to the summit if you look hard for it. If you start encountering class 4 terrains, you are definitely off route. I would not call this route a basic alpine climb; it should be classified alpine scramble (Class 3). We brought a few cams and nuts plus rope, and all this gear ended up being training weight for us :)
The whole trip took us (a party of 3) 6 hours, because we took lots of breaks, including a nap on the top. Without these long breaks, we could have finished the whole scramble in 5 hours or so.
I highly recommend a stop at River Time Brewing in Darrington. They have a good beer selection, and their flatbread is awesome.
