Yak Peak--Yak Crack

[TeleRoss]

Jason and I decided to go for a little bit of B.C. fun for a day and set out for Yak Peak early Thursday morning. Leaving Seattle around 4:30, we found ourselves rounding a bend in the highway and staring straight up at the crazy granite blob that is Yak Peak. Some low clouds were swirling around the summit, but the weather was looking good and the rock looked....fairly dry.

-Yak Peak in the afternoon

We eventually found the parking area after some back and forth on the pass and set out for what looked like a short approach. But of course, we took a wrong turn somewhere (right out of the car as it turned out) and ended up having to bushwhack through horrendous alder across a never ending slide path. Note: from the parking area walk down the highway until just past the sign for the rest area, there you will find enormous cairns marking the climbers path.

So after working up a nice sweat in the alder thickets we finally broke out below the face. We roped up and set off simuling up the lower slabs just after 10am

Working up the low angle slabs, and then a couple of pitches of easy finger and hand cracks we got into a nice rhythm. Simul climbing for a bit up the low angle sections, and belaying others.

About midface there was a nice left facing corner, which was quite wet but a lot of fun.

-Jason in the corner

-Jason pulling out above the corner

Above that the rock began to get pretty loose...pulling over large bulges with the rock crumbling in your hands and below your feet added to the excitement of otherwise really moderate climbing.

-Somewhere midface

A couple of cruxy moves which step out right and then up a rib provided some nice face climbing. In Kearney he says a "vertical rib" but it is certainly not vertical. Really not that steep but the moves are kind of awkward on small edges.

Past that the route finishes in a big corner for one long pitch on good rock.

-On the last pitch

Above the corner we scrambled for a ways and found ourselves on the summit at 3pm with beautiful blue skies and a nice breeze to keep the bugs away.

-These two goofballs stole my camera and started taking self portraits of themselves on the summit....I swear

Good climb on an interesting peak. Some decomposed rock but on the harder parts the rock tended to be more solid.

-Yosemite?....Nope just the Coquihalla Highway

After a quick descent off the backside we found the climbers path back down to the road and were back at the car at 4:30. A quick drive down the highway to Hope and we were downing burgers and Kokanees, and making plans for returning for another B.C. adventure.

[tomtom]

But of course, we took a wrong turn somewhere (right out of the car as it turned out) and ended up having to bushwhack through horrendous alder across a never ending slide path.

 

This is a required component of all BC climbs.

[Dru]

For Washington gapers who don't know where the trail is

[TeleRoss]

It was amusing because as we were driving around up there we were like "I wonder if anyone has ever blown this approach...Look at it it's right off the road."

Yeah, and sure enough it was us cursing as we were fighting our way across that alder

Good stuff