Mount Yamnuska

Approved

Mount Yamnuska V

January 11, 2004
Mountain height: 2,240 m (7,347 ft)
Elevation gain: 900 m
Ascent time: 3:25
Descent time: 2:30
Roundtrip distance: 8.78 km

Scrambling with Mark.

A very leisurely, and scenic traverse of Mount Yamnuska, in beautiful and surprisingly mild weather conditions. Once again, we chose to do the loop route, but in reverse (ascent - west side; descent - east side). I'm sure it's a little faster to ascent via the east side and descend via the west side, as the scree slope used on the west side face is very easy to descend, but quite tedious to ascend. Like many of our recent trips, we were lucky to have clear skies, and as the sun rose on the mountain face, we were treated to some beautiful colours of rock and sky.

Upon reaching the back of the mountain, we decided to stay right on the ridge (edge) as much as possible. You really get your "best bang for your buck" by doing so, as there are many terrific views of Yamnuska's impressive 400 metre cliff face. The ascent was easy and scenic throughout and there was very little snow.

For the descent we continued down towards the east side. At the crux, we traversed the narrow ledge using the wire cable placed there. The cable made the traverse very easy, but I certainly wouldn't have chosen that route had it not been there. Narrow is an understatement - the ledge is almost non-existent in a couple of places!

The remainder of the descent was again very scenic and enjoyable, marred only by some graffiti on the rock at the east end (the complete stupidity of some people never ceases to dismay me!). We also ran into seven people on descent - that's more humans than we've seen on our last 10 trips combined! Overall, a great winter trip in not-so-wintery conditions.

A frozen waterfall, with the steep walls of Yamnuska behind