Recon Hikes

The idea of doing a recon hike for a climb isn’t a new one. Climbers who are interested in a route that is long or remote or both, hike out to the start of the route to check the approach, find the start of the climb and scope out the first few pitches. It can also involve hiking up the descent trail if the route goes down a different way than it goes up. This helps climbers to know what they’re up against, and plan more precisely for the day of the actual climb.

I first became acquainted with this idea on a climbing trip to the Bugaboos in British Columbia.  I was planning to do a big route there with a mountain guide. Bugaboo rock is granite, which features more crack climbing than I’m used to, so the guide and I decided to warm up on an easier multi pitch crack climb. The approach to the climb involves crossing a glacier, like most of the climbs in the Bugaboos.

We had finished our climb and were back down on the glacier when a couple who had just come over the glacier came by to chat. They were checking out the start of a big route they wanted to do the next day. They wondered if we had done it. My guide, Simon, had done the route and told them where it started. He answered all their questions about the route. They then wandered over to check out the start of their climb.

I told Simon I was surprised they would come all the way across the glacier just to look at a route and not to climb anything. He said it was actually a really smart thing to do. He told me they would probably be starting their day before sunrise, hiking across the glacier to their route in the dark, by the light of headlamps. This way, they would know exactly where they were going and not waste any time looking around in the dark.

That was a light bulb moment for me. Of course it made perfect sense to check out the route before you were going to climb it, if you could. Since that day, I have done many recons of routes or areas. It’s a nice activity to do on a day when I am too tired to climb or my muscles or skin need a day off from climbing. I can hike in to a new area without a big pack full of climbing gear and make plans for when I come back to climb. 

Last Thursday was Dan’s birthday and we decided to hike up the front of Mount Yamnuska to check out the trad routes there. We have a guide book about climbing on Mount Yamnuska, written by Andy Genereux. We met him a few years ago climbing at Moose Mountain (see Moose Mountain Mission on the Rock Climbing page in the menu above). He put up many of the routes we love at Moose Mountain and after meeting him, we bought both his climbing guide books, one on The Ghost and one on Yamnuska. Both areas feature trad multi pitch climbing but the climbs on Yamnuska are much more accessible than the ones in the Ghost. After our Joshua Tree trip early this spring, we wanted to do some easy trad multi pitches close to home so we started looking for easy climbs on Yamnuska. We found a few 5.6’s that we thought we might climb.  

I had been up Yamnuska and climbed a beautiful long route there a few years ago with my mountain guide friend, Jean Gamilovskij. Jean planned the day and led every pitch. With a guide, all the safety aspects, the route finding and the planning are taken care of. I just had to show up and climb and belay. I’ve had some really great days climbing with a guide but there’s something different about planning and leading a climb yourself. 

The recon hike on Yamnuska was so worthwhile. I knew they had done some work on the hiking trail a few years ago. The hiker’s trail switchbacks up the east side and traverses along the back to the summit. Then it comes down the west side where hikers used to scree ski down the front. Some inexperienced hikers got hurt doing this and one year, someone died taking a bad fall in the scree. This prompted the construction work on the trails and a bunch of new signs.  

I hadn’t realized the climber’s trail had been fixed up too. It switchbacked up the front of the mountain through the trees. Signs ensured we stayed on the right trail. 

When we got to the top of the trees and the base of the cliff section, the trail traversed across the top of the scree. The trail was rough and a bit difficult in this part. We did not look forward to hiking across it with backpacks full of climbing gear. Since the route we wanted to climb is all the way at the far west end of the cliff, we hoped to find a better trail up to the west end.

We saw lots of interesting looking routes across the front. Is this the Calgary Route?

We finally got to the west end of the cliff and found the climbs we were interested in. BBQ’d Rib follows the prominent buttress or “rib” where the cliff turns from the long south face to the west. It looked so gorgeous!

We were able to really check out the route and take some photos. I started to feel really excited about climbing it. The hike up had been long but I started imagining a day where we got a really early start and hiked up to make the climb. We would descend by scrambling down the back and hiking down to the west col.

We hiked up towards the top of the west col that connects Mount Yamnuska to the neighbouring mountain and found the recommended descent trail. We were excited to check it out. The descent trail was great. Well graded, it switchbacked down the front of the west side of the mountain and along the base of it back towards the parking lot.

Along the way, we found a frozen waterfall that looked amazing for ice climbing. It was too melted out now to climb but we’ll go back next winter. Bonus recon! Can’t wait to check it out. What a great day.