White Pass ( elev. ) is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

in the

northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, in the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, southeast of

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

and north of

Goat Rocks Goat Rocks is an extinct stratovolcano in the Cascade Range, located between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams in southern Washington, in the United States. Part of the Cascade Volcanoes, it was formed by the subduction of the Juan de Fuca ...

. U.S. Highway 12 travels over White Pass, connecting

Yakima County Yakima County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 256,728. The county seat and largest city is Yakima. The county was formed out of Ferguson County in January 1865 and is named for the Yakam ...

on the east with Lewis County. It was named after Charles A. White, a surveying engineer who led the party that discovered it for the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1878. A shortcut route across White Pass between Packwood and Naches was first established as State Road 5 in 1931, and the link was completed in August 1951 along the current route, later designated U.S. Route 12.

White Pass Ski Area The White Pass Ski Area is a ski area in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, in the Cascade Range at White Pass in the state of Washington. It is located west of Yakima on U.S. Route 12, and east of Morton. As the crow flies, the pass i ...

, at the summit, opened on January 11, 1953. Champion ski racing twins

Phil Phil may refer to: * Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names * Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil" * Phil, Kentucky, United States * ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film * -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as a root te ...

and

Steve Mahre Steven Irving Mahre (born May 10, 1957 in Yakima, Washington) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and younger twin brother (by four minutes) of ski racer Phil Mahre. Career Mahre won the silver medal in slalom at the 1984 Winter Olympics in ...

(and their seven siblings) grew up on White Pass, where their father Dave Mahre was the mountain manager for the

ski area A ski area is the terrain and supporting infrastructure where skiing and other snow sports take place. Such sports include alpine and cross-country skiing, snow boarding, tubing, sledding, etc. Ski areas may stand alone or be part of a ski resort. ...

. White Pass is also the home mountain of professional snowboarder Marc Frank Montoya, owner of the Block Hotels.

As the crow flies __NOTOC__ The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver ...

, the pass is approximately southeast of the summit of Mount Rainier and north of Mount Adams. On October 7, 2007, a single-engine

Cessna Caravan The Cessna 208 Caravan is a utility aircraft produced by Cessna. The project was commenced on November 20, 1981, and the prototype first flew on December 9, 1982. The production model was certified by the FAA in October 1984 and its Cargoma ...

crashed near White Pass while carrying

skydiver Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

s; all 10 people aboard died in the crash.

References

External links

White Pass road conditionsWhite Pass Scenic Byway
- official site
Ski White Pass.com
- trail map for the ski area
Experience Washington.com
- White Pass Scenic Byway Landforms of Yakima County, Washington Landforms of Lewis County, Washington

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

Mountain passes of the Cascades Transportation in Yakima County, Washington Transportation in Lewis County, Washington Gifford Pinchot National Forest {{LewisCountyWA-geo-stub