Running the Mt. White Trail

A panoramic view of the Little Atlin Lake and the wilderness beyond

Mt. White is a big mountain looming over the Alaska highway on the north and Little Atlin Lake on the South West. It is easily recognizable while driving south on the Alaska highway, immediately after crossing the Jakes Corner, 80 kms from Whitehorse.

Type	Out & Back
Distance	6.6 kms
Elevation Gain	720 m
Difficulty	Easy
Time	3-3.5 hrs

Note: This trail is closed from May 15 to June 15 for the goats to nurse and raise their kids.

Mt. White hike is a good trail for both, running on cool summer days, and Snowshoeing in the freezing winter months. Given its steep elevation gain in a short distance, it is a good workout hike for the day.

Parking lot; near the generator station on bottom left of this image

The trail starts from the parking lot, on Atlin Road, near the generator station at the base of the mountain. The trail starts in the trees and begins to rise steeply pretty soon. There is a cable that runs parallel to the trail. You can follow this cable for the first half of the hike, to the Northwestel radar tower. It is at about 2 km from the trailhead. This is a good spot to soak in some views and have a quick bite or two.

Above the tree line, endless views begin to emerge

The summit is only a little over a kilometer from the Northwestel radar tower. This section is a bit more rocky and exposed to heavy wind. Just below the summit, on the rocky face of the mountain, you would see various cave formations on the mountain. If you have time and some adventure in you, get off-trail to explore some of these formations.

Near the summit of Mt. White

The summit of the mountain is a large flat area where you can explore in all directions for different views. On the north side is the Alaska highway and on the southwest side is the Little Atlin Lake. On a clear day, further south, you would also be able to see the Atlin Lake.

Happy to have reached yet another Yukon summit

Little Atlin Lake in the center and Atlin Lake in the distance

While hiking back to the trailhead, we had some fun time going off-trails exploring various rock formations where we found a rock tunnel like the one shown in the images below.