Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

August 3, 2012

2633m

Yoho National Park, BC

Whaleback Mountain is a mere “easy scramble” and the easiest summit in Little Yoho Valley, but still involves a long approach if you do it in one day from parking lot. It’s better to bag it as part of a multi-peak weekend trip and Mike and I did it as the second objective of our 6-peak weekend.

From the base of Isolated Peak we trudged up tedious scree slope to Isolated/Whaleback col, right of the rock pinnacles. That slope was loose and very 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.

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 mosquitoes. 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 10 min later. They went up via Iceline Trail, and didn’t get to the camp until 3 pm… 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.

And, the story goes on to our next day. We successfully traversed all 4 proposed objectives, and to start, let’s read Kiwetinok Peak first.