Mount Yamnuska Traverse and West Col Descent (solo)
Yamnuska is a classic introduction to scrambling. Chimneys,
chains, – all looks and sounds scary and it is indeed a little bit shaky.
But the biggest surprise this Sunday was a foot deep snow which essentially turned everything above the tree line into a nice winter hike.
I left crampons in the car but apparently my Helly Hansen boots have nice grip which works very well on fresh packed snow. With some extra care on icy rocks I made it to the summit almost effortlessly. Views from the summit are exceptional.
The original plan was to do the traverse with scree descent (more fun, and I had my gaiters with me, ha-ha), but with all the snow the “not recommended” route was not popular today, so I decided to go with the flow and took the West Col Descent instead.
West Col trail goes around the mountain to its face and then very smoothly descends back pretty much to the parking lot.
The big secret is that if you don’t want to adrenaline yourself with chains and not a big fun of exposure and chimneys, you totally can summit Yamnuska by making it out and back via this West Col “descent” by simply ascending from it CW. Just don’t trust the misleading sign “Climbers Access Only” once you see it on the trail to Raven’s End and go straight up for it instead of turning right where all hikers go.
You’ll hike through the forest for a while,
then pass another “Climbers Access” sign (but don’t go there this time), and eventually get to the base on the West side of Yamnuska, where you begin steep, but crux-less climb to the summit:
More photos from my Yamnuska solo are here: