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Edmonton, AB
Canada
486 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2012 : 1:04 PM
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About 1 month ago, Andrea Battistel asked me to join her group for all 6 scrambles in Little Yoho over 4 days. Of course I'm interested in, but doing those over 4 days is a bit luxury so I threw out The Presidents to her group, which was not surprisingly, being rejected. Oh okay, I might gonna shorten the scrambles to 2 days then, and by this way, I could be weather wise and more flexible. Mike Mitchell (Arcturus) also showed interest to this trip, and he agreed with me to do them over 2 days instead of 4. However, we were busy buying gathering camping gears till the last minute. I spend hundreds of dollars buying a Fly Creek UL1 tent, a sleeping pad, and a bulky synthetic -12 degree sleeping bag. Well the tent and sleeping pad are good enough, but obviously I still have to buy a better sleeping bag for the future overnight trips. Mike and I didn't even have a stove, so we didn't pack things that require heating. I packed 8 sandwiches and 6 muffins, and obviously, they're extremely heavy for camping trips. Anyway, the approach is only 10km one way, and I really didn't feel like buying all camping food. Sandwiches and muffins are really cheap compared with compacted food. One week ago, I took several close shots of Mt McArthur area from the summit of Mt Niblock, and not surprisingly, Little Yoho was still snowy. Judging by the difficulty of our objectives, we wisely chose to bring ice axe and crampons. My pack is 70L and I couldn't pack all the stuffs inside (obviously). I had to hang my tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, and slippers outside (please don't rain or they would all get wet)... Adding all the factors, my pack feels like a stone. Apart from that, I had to wear my stiff winter boots (-35 degree) instead of hiking boots as my hiking boots are not crampon compatible. (I didn't feel like spending another 250$ to buy a pair of backpacking boots). Anyway, this is my first backpacking trip and I have lots of stuffs to go through.
Obviously the hike in and out would be much harder than expected... We didn't finish the trip in 2 days. It turned out to be:
Friday: Hike in via Yoho Valley, then Isolated Peak to Whaleback Mountain
Saturday: Kiwetinok Peak to Mt Pollinger to Mt McArthur to Mt Kerr (both official and true summits)
Sunday: Hike out via Iceline Trail, then go home...
Monday: Write trip reports, relax. Thunderstorms in the Rockies anyway...
This trip reports is for the first day.
We got a good sleep in Canmore ACC Hostel the night before. Honestly I don't like to spend money on this part, and I always do car-camping. My parents and I even managed to squeeze into my small car for 3 nights in 2009, the road trip to Canadian Rockies, and we felt okay for that. (I'm sure my style will change after I get a job)... But I have to admit that the Hostel is more comfortable than car, for sure. And to get a good sleep before an intense backpacking trip is essential.
We woke up in rain Friday morning... I didn't check the forecast for Canmore though, so I still felt optimistic about the weather in Yoho, which was predicted to be sunny. As we drove west, the clouds indeed lifted up and the rain stopped after passing Sulphur Mountain / Mt Norquay. Patches of blue sky appeared above Bourgeau and Brett which showed positive sign. We arrived at Takakkaw Falls parking lot at 9AM. Because we had done packing, we soon started the first crux, the hike in...
It was not as bad as I thought (I thought it would be the crux for the entire trip)... But it was still very painful. Going uphill with heavy pack was not as bad as going downhill, so that's another factor why I felt okay for the hike in. The Yoho Valley trail is flat and easy to negotiate. In no time we arrived at the Laughing Falls junction. I need to point out here, this approach is very boring and has almost zero view. I'm glad we chose Iceline Trail on the way out. From Laughing Falls, we went up the left branch. A steep 1.6km switchback section brought us to the upper hanging valley, followed by another 3.5km nice gradual uphill hike to Stanley Mitchell Hut. The camping ground is 0.3km past the Hut. We finally could relieve by this point, and we quickly set up our tents and stuffs. I was surprised that Andrea's group hadn't been here yet. After a lunch break, Mike and I started the trudge to Isolated Peak.
   
We first had to go back to Stanley Mitchell Hut, and we soon found the trail started on the east side of the hut, according to Alan Kane. The trail is well developed and quickly led us to the upper meadows, and we were treated with spectacular views to all directions. As I only brought 1L of water up from Parking Lot, I was glad to find a mini waterfall where I could re-fill. The trail gets faint upon reaching the alpine, but the abundant cairns mark the way correctly. We had to find a way to cross the stream, which could present some problem in early season. Not far up, we arrived at the base of Isolated Peak.
   
   
From here, we had to skirt around the base of the peak on its south side. The snow was surprisingly supportive at this time of the day. While ascending the snow, we had to make sure we were not on the adjacent glacier therefore don't venture too far into. We just walked on the edge of the snowfield. A big scree cone coming down from the mountain indicates where we should leave the snow and trudge up the tedious scree.
     
Soon we were facing the ascending gully that Kane mentions. The description has no details from here on, and we had to find our own route up. The gully was snow filled and we made a poor decision of staying on climber's left of the snow. The gully eventually ended at a 3m waterfall step. It was too wet to climb up. I tried to climb 2m up and to go through I had to force a jump move on wet holds, which was definitely not a moderate scramble... Therefore I backtracked. Mike could see an easier line towards climber's left from below. But to get there, I had to cross a very exposed and narrow ledge, with loose scree and dirt on. This was even more sketchy... So what, we had to cross the snow to the other side of the gully then. The snow was more like ice and we had to put our crampons on (glad we brought crampons up). The terrain on the other side (climber's right) was still uncertain but we have figured out it would be the only possible way. Not far up the other side, we spotted a less steep line to get up the next step, where we found another wider ledge back towards climber's left. We traversed on that ledge for about 30-40m or so, and we were facing another snow gully. This one looked better than the one before, and I carefully kicked step across it without crampons. Mike followed me but slipped and got wedged in between snow and rock. He was able to pull himself out and crossed the gully safely. I felt much more nervous watching others doing exposed steps rather than doing it myself. A cairn helped confirming we were on correct route now.
  
The next step was going up a narrow gully / chimney. After that, a long loose section brought us to the west ridge. Then it's merely a hike to get to the summit.
  
Summit Panorama:
McArthur to Des Poilus:
Balfour, Daly, Niles, Lake Louise Group:
Other summit photos:
   
We retraced out steps on the way down, and it was not faster particularly because of the looseness. We had to be careful not to kick down rocks to each other, but it was almost impossible. For the first snow gully crossing we carefully used my steps made on the way up. For the second snow gully we stayed on skier's left to completely avoid it. The terrain below is not easy scree run neither, mainly rubbles on solid ground... Getting to the snow below was much of a relieve of our knees, and we quickly made our way down. Now, the second objective of the day, Whaleback Mountain.
       
From the base of Isolated Peak, we had to trudge up tedious scree slope to a upper col, right of the rock pinnacles. Once you're on the slope, it gets foreshortened. Once on the col, a scenic ridge walk led us to the summit of Whaleback. Most people say Whaleback is a hike, but I don't think so. I think if the route involves scree slog, ie, loose stuffs, it cannot be called a hike. I had lots of trouble on loose ground when I started scrambling. Also, some route finding is required on the ridge. I stayed on the ridge crest and there're several moderate sections involved.
   
Summit Panorama:
Other summit photos:
  
The walk back was pleasant and scenic. We were facing towards The Presidents for most of the time. Once getting into the trees, we had to use bug spray because of the mosquitos. Once we got back to camp, I wandered around to see where was Andrea's group, but couldn't find them... They showed up about 10min later. They went up via Iceline Trail, and didn't get to the camp until 3pm... Then they did Mt Kerr instead of Isolated Peak. We debated about which is the true summit of Kerr, but anyway, Mike and I would do both the two summits the next day, just to be sure.
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
220 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2012 : 2:55 PM
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| Nice job with the report, although we were technically in BC. ;) |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
486 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2012 : 3:03 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Arcturus
Nice job with the report, although we were technically in BC. ;)
Yep I know this is in BC actually. But I believe most of CT-ers are based in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton, and Yoho is way much closer to Calgary and Edmonton, so this trip report should be more useful for climbers based in the Rockies. Last time I post a TR from Yoho in BC Forum, and it only received less than 100 clicks...
I think the mountains should be sorted as Coast Mountains, Columbia Mountains, and Canadian Rockies, rather than BC and AB, in my opinion though.
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
220 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2012 : 4:11 PM
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These photos/illustrations should help clear up the route we followed for our ascent of Isolated Mountain. The third photo is showing the scramble route between "A" and "B" from near "A".
    
A few additional photos from this portion of the trip:
    
1. Traversing the Waterfalls
2. Whaleback Mountain from Isolated Summit
3. The Poilus Glacier
4. Isolated Glamour Shot
5. Steven on Whaleback
As for doing Whaleback from the Isolated/Whaleback col, it should also be noted that the traverse is quite exposed as shown in #5 above. It's an easy scramble or a moderately difficult ridgewalk. |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
486 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2012 : 4:51 PM
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That's such a detailed route description, Mike!! Wow. It looks more involved in the photos.
Thank you a lot for putting them on this thread. |
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calgary
32 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2012 : 7:59 PM
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| We went up Isolated yesterday....but definitely not via the same route you guys took. I looked for the features in your description and drawing but we didn't see them on the way up, now looking at these photos confirms we didn't go the same way. The route we took looks much simpler. |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
486 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2012 : 8:49 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by andrea b
We went up Isolated yesterday....but definitely not via the same route you guys took. I looked for the features in your description and drawing but we didn't see them on the way up, now looking at these photos confirms we didn't go the same way. The route we took looks much simpler.
Did you went up the gully immediately up the scree cone? Or did you venture along the glacier for more distance before going up? We used the first gully and our line is probably the only possible scramble route to get through. It feels more involved than a moderate rating though, not because of the scrambling, but due to the serious route-finding issue. |
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Calgary, Alberta
Andorra
3830 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2012 : 10:54 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by StevenSong
quote:
Originally posted by Arcturus
Nice job with the report, although we were technically in BC. ;)
Yep I know this is in BC actually. But I believe most of CT-ers are based in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton, and Yoho is way much closer to Calgary and Edmonton, so this trip report should be more useful for climbers based in the Rockies. Last time I post a TR from Yoho in BC Forum, and it only received less than 100 clicks...
I think the mountains should be sorted as Coast Mountains, Columbia Mountains, and Canadian Rockies, rather than BC and AB, in my opinion though.
Many of us have been saying this for years (though I suggest Coast, 'Interior BC', and Rockies). Many simply treat the Alberta forum as a 'Rocky Mountains' forum, rather than burying a Yoho TR in the BC section. So you're in good company.
With your tent, sleeping pad, and sleeping bag all hanging outside of your pack, what on earth did you fill the 70L with? Sandwiches and muffins are bulky, but not THAT bulky! Even using cheaper, bulkier, heavier gear, I suggest you probably can do some assessment as to what you might not need to take on future trips. |
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Kootenay Bud
2695 Posts |
Posted - 08/07/2012 : 07:28 AM
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We did Isolated years ago via the west ridge - easy glacier walk and reasonable class 2/3 scrambling. That gully Kane recommends looks nasty and sounds nasty. I guess the glacier route is not in "the" book because it involves glacier travel. You can also easily do Macarthur via the east face on the glacier.
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Calgary
165 Posts |
Posted - 08/07/2012 : 3:05 PM
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The west ridge/glacier access would be easiest but there are three gullies on that side of Isolated and the easiest by far is the left one which involves traversing left on big sloping ledges to enter the gulley(as actually described by Kane versus going straight up the harder gullies).
Five m of moderate scramble on loose rock gets you into the gully and then scree trail up to big cairn on the ridge.
see 
More pics at http://www.billkerr.ca/gallery2/v/Yoho2011/?g2_page=7
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Edited by - billk on 08/07/2012 3:10 PM |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
220 Posts |
Posted - 08/07/2012 : 4:56 PM
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| Yeah, it certainly looks like we took the "scenic route" up Isolated. |
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calgary
32 Posts |
Posted - 08/07/2012 : 9:14 PM
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| The route that we took sounds more like the one described by billk. We started going up from the snow on the right side of a gully/break and made our way up and to the left over to the break and then up through it to where there was sort of a path and fresh boot prints leading up to the saddle. |
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Isolated Peak to Whaleback Mountain
