Whitehorse Ice Climbs Climbing

In Real Estate it's "location, location, location"; for Whitehorse it's "condition, condition, condition"!

I have seen world class mountaineers give up at the base of the slab before uncoiling the rope because conditions were not "tenable"; and others have barely escaped with their lives over on the South Buttress as the "Myth of Sisyphus" collapsed around them.

Yet relative novices made the 3rd or 4th ascent of the Standard route in the 1960's with pre-drooped pick, long, ice axes and rudimentary crampons. Conditions were next to perfect...4-6 inches of compact snow over 1-2 inches of "spongy" ice. (Ice screws didn't hold falls in those days, so thickness didn't matter much.)