It has been a while since I have been out snowshoing so I wanted to do something different. Snowshoeing up the center moraine of White River was offered several times in the past by Marty on Mazama snowshoes but we could never do it as the ice bridge over the creek had not formed. This time I went out and found a good ice bridge over the creek and head up the moraine to a point where loose rock, steep loose snow and high winds made me wish I had climb gear so that was where I turned around. Next time I will wear my climb boots and take and ice ax.
Here is a photo easy of the trek.

I made it to the lower junction in pretty good time. To the left is the usual route to White River Overlook. To the right it is off to the center moraine or over to Full Moon Falls. The center moraine is the ridge in the forground that swings to the left of photo and then curves back around to Hood. The hill in the center blocks the view of where I will end up.

Heading up to the last two trees on the center moraine. The stream on the left was flowing and had many open spot where you could see the water. From here I could see how this could lead right up to White River Glacier and even make a loop by crossing the glacier at a spot with no cravases or going to the right and back down the far right stream.

I ran out of snow when I hit these rocks. I could not go down around them as it was steep and there was two inches of soft snow over almost ice so now good traction with my snowshoes. I was standing there thinking of taking my snowshoes off and scrambling over the rocks when the wind really picked up and I started getting sand blasted. So it only took two and half hour to get to this spot so an earlier turn around time then I wanted but I was just not in the mood for this wind.