Whiterun held anyway, and we moved on to attempt Dawnstar. Finally, I died in a different spot (managed to survive longer) and this time, I made it to an Imperial camp. I fell several times during the defense of Whiterun (those Stormcloak Mages are TOUGH), having to reload each time because the game wouldn't progress. But Galmar is in the middle of something, no matter where he is.I had a LOT of mods installed, so I gave up on this, did a clean reinstall, adding only the unofficial patches, Run for you Lives and When Vampires Attack (not sure why I did that), a water mod (again, failed impulse control), and Apollodown's CWO.This time, I went straight into the Civil War after defeating that initial dragon for Whiterun. I tried talking to Ulfric again, which added a SECOND hold capture quest, this one for Solitude, itself. Then Galmar was 'in the middle of something' until the end of time. WIth all those levels and, perhaps more importantly, Daedric artifacts, I had no difficulty surviving through the battle. Shortly after I killed Alduin, I signed up with the Stormcloaks.Everything went fine until after the Battle of Whiterun, when the civil war began in earnest. I allowed Elenwen to stay for the conference, which enabled me to give the Stormcloaks a second hold to make up for it.
The first time I tried it, Stormcloak side, I didn't start until after I'd killed Alduin, meaning I'd completed Season Unending in the process.