Whitehorn lies about eight miles southwest of Robson and can be easily seen from the Mount Robson trail; with binoculars you can see the “white horn” on the summit formed by a large snow cornice. Until two weeks prior to our arrival, no route on the north face had been done; it was Jeff Lowe and Mike Weiss who did the first ascent directly up the middle of the face. Jeff suggested that a distinctly different route lay on the direct north ridge of the face and it was this new line that Dave Hamre and I did. We camped in meadows below the east face of Whitehorn and in the early morning hiked for five hours up a glacial ramp, down behind a huge buttress and up again onto the north glacier. The climb began on the extreme east side of the north face, leading over three pitches of rock, then onto ice faces and exposed snow ridges. For the last lead I belayed Dave directly beneath the “white horn” itself while he traversed over 20 feet of vertical ice to the summit ridge. NCCS II or III, F4; 11 pitches; 15 hours from camp, 4½ on the climb.

Jocelyn C. Glidden