I decided to climb Mount Yamnuska today (June 24, 2023) because Dan wasn’t too keen on doing it again and he wasn’t able to join me. I didn’t want him to feel like he was missing out. He still did but not as bad as if I’d climbed a mountain he was eager to do too.
I also chose Yam because I’ve been up it before, years ago, and it was a fun scramble. The trails there were rebuilt a couple years ago and I was curious to see the changes.
I climbed it on a warm sunny Saturday and boy was it crowded! The scrambling was fun and the chains were as spicy as I remember. Great day.
Note that the photo above, at the top of the page, is one I took in April when Dan and I hiked up the front to look at climbing routes. Today there was no snow.
A beautiful day for a hike! It starts in a forest, flat for a short time, over a little bridge. Then the uphill starts.
The trail builders have created stairs from flat stones at strategic locations. There are also many signs along the trail now to ensure you get to where you want to go. Here the signs tell hikers and scramblers to go right. This loop is definitely done counter clock wise. Never clock wise.
Once on the hiker and scrambler trail, you traverse the slope heading uphill on excellent trail.
Looking at the rocky top half of the mountain. The trail traverses the right side of the mountain up through the trees onto the shoulder. Then it goes along the top of the shoulder to the base of the rock on the right or east side. This area is called Raven's End.
Here on top of the shoulder, the trail heads up toward the rocky top half of the mountain. You can start to see the back of the rocky section where the scramble trail goes up.
Stairs take you up towards Raven's End. Once there, you see a sign telling you that continuing on is a serious scramble and should not be undertaken unless you have scrambling experience.
for the full loop
Yamnuska parking lot on Highway 1A east of Exshaw.
My path up to the summit and down the west col recorded on the FATMAP app on my phone.
A Kananskis Conservation Pass is required to park your vehicle at the trailhead. Buy one here https://conservationpass.alberta.ca/kcp
Looking through the top of the chimney. This was a beautiful day and a very fun scramble over great rock. It made me excited to climb some routes on the front. We'll get up there eventually.
Wow, that makes 11 peaks climbed this year. I'm not sure what I'll do next. Waiting for Dan's ankle to heal. I want to do some challenging scrambles with him.
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