| Ref: Alan Kane's
Scrambles
in the Canadian Rockies |
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Going to Stanley Mitchell Hut. |
Scramble:
RT:14.0 (including Kiwetinok Peak, Mounts Pollinger and McArthur); 3.5
up from the campsite. We had been talking about the Little Yoho quartet for
a couple of years. With our hounds pre-booked at the Bed & Biscuit,
we figured this outing should be next. The last time we climbed four
summits in a day was in 2006 with our beloved Spaniel Winston. This
time, we set off with no dogs due to the nature of this trip.
Approach:
After dropping off the doggies in the afternoon, we picked up our gear,
swung by Subway and drove to Takakkaw Falls parking lot. We didn't
waste time and were soon on the trail towards Stanley Mitchell Hut and
our campsite. As we climbed the popular trail, we met many people on
their way down. The area was buzzing with hikers enjoying the splendid
weather and the magnificent scenery. We reached our site with enough
time to set up, eat and store our food before darkness.
We slept
well under the cool starry night and we let the light of dawn wake us;
we were hiking by 7 AM. We followed a good trail to Kiwetinok Lake,
which still had a strip of ice across. From there, gaining Kiwetinok
Pass was pleasant and took little time. We left extra gear behind and
continued towards Mount Kerr. The ascent is straightforward and offers
some easy scrambling bits. Preceding the official, lower summit, a
rockband impedes the way on the ridge proper and necessitates a detour
lower down. Once at the top, it is obvious that the south-east summit
is taller. We continued along the connecting ridge going on the east
side of some neat rock and then we were climbing again. The
blocky terrain of Mount Kerr is interesting and fun to travel through.
We had a quick pause at the huge cairn and then continued with our
summit pursuit.
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Early morning sun as we trek towards the headwall. |
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Nearing the headwall preceding Kiwetinok Lake. |
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Above the headwall magnificent scenery unfolds. |
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| Mount Kerr, the taller summit is on the left. |
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| Very pleasant hiking on an awesome day. |
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| Kiwetinok Peak looms over the lake. |
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| Gaining Kiwetinok Pass. |
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| Mount Kerr from the pass, we left extra gear behind. |
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| Ascending blocky terrain. |
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| Looking back, we notice a snowy alternate descent (edge of shade) from Mount Pollinger. |
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| On the ridge. |
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| Just ahead at a rockband, we had to move down to continue. |
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| At the lower, official summit. |
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| Heading to the taller peak. |
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| Almost there. |
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| At the top of our first objective. |
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| Mount Mummery (left) and intimidating Kiwetinok Peak.
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| Leaving summit number one. |
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| The connecting ridge to the lower summit. |
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| Some interesting rock formations. |
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| More neat rock along the ridge. |
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| Eastern view. |
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| The whole traverse from Kiwetinok to McArthur is visible. |
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| Back at the pass. |
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| Onto our next objective, Kiwetinok Peak. |
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| Continue on to Kiwetinok |
| Back to home page |
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