With a beautiful day and time to kill on the Mountain Loop Highway after Higher Squire, I settled upon White Chuck as the perfect quick peak for the afternoon. It is a distinctive, isolated mountain that has long grabbed my attention, with its steep faces and 3800+ feet of prominence (making it Washington’s 25th most prominent peak).
One nice part of climbing White Chuck is that there is a maze of logging roads on the west side of the peak, and you can actually drive to nearly 5000’. This makes the ascent relatively short, with only about 2000 feet of elevation gain. The drive in was much longer than I anticipated, however, with some rutted and potholed sections, which negated the “quick” aspect of the climb that I was planning for. There were some nice views of the surrounding peaks and the Sauk River valley far below before even reaching the trailhead, though, so that helped to make up for the painfully long drive in.
The hike itself is straightforward, passing a weather station and staying relatively flat until reaching the main gully. Here I picked my way up initially through scree, then following a bootpath when available and doing some light scrambling.
Eventually, I reached a wide ledge and followed that to the right to reach a grassy chute. The chute had a straightforward trail in it and was brimming with beautiful wildflowers. There are great views at the top of this chute, both down to the glacier below on the north side of the ridge, as well as of the precipitous northwest peak.
From there the route is easy but exposed, generally following the ridge. Much of it is class 2, but the difficulty is amplified by the downward sloping nature of the rock, and the occasional presence of loose, kitty-litter scree. It is not difficult, but certainly not a place you would want to fall.
Much has been said about the downclimb to the notch just before the true summit, but I found the downclimb to be short and ultra-solid class 3, with many good handholds. After this part was negotiated, there was just a short, easy climb to reach the summit.
The views were excellent as I expected. White Chuck has such a great location in the Cascades. I particularly liked looking down the rugged spine the Pugh and Sloan create just to the south. Glacier Peak also feels quite close from the summit.
On the descent, I took a cautious approach on the downward sloping rocks, staying closer to the ground than on my way up. Everything was relatively easy with a bit of care, and before long I was cruising back to the trailhead.
I ended up getting back to my car only 2 hours and 20 minutes after I left it. Maybe this is a “quick” peak after all.
Final Stats: 3.95 miles, 2009 feet of gain
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