Summit Elevation (m): 2785
Trip Date: Sunday, May 12, 2024
Round Trip Time (hr): 3.5
Elevation Gain (m): 850
Total Trip Distance (km): 9.6
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 3 – you fall, you break something or worse
Difficulty Notes: Even with the chains installed, this is a moderate scramble.
Technical Rating: SC6; YDS (3rd)
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps
Îyâ Mnathka is a Stoney Nakoda word roughly translated as “flat-faced mountain”. This is an appropriate name for this striking peak at the eastern edge of the Alberta Rockies also known as “Yamnuska” (or simply “Yam” to locals). Interestingly, the mountain was officially dubbed Mount John Laurie in 1961 after lobbying by the Stoney Nakoda First Nation. Laurie was the founder of the Indian Association of Alberta and heavily involved in promoting the causes of First Nations peoples in Alberta. Every year millions of tourists on their way to Banff and Lake Louise wonder at its incredible wall of stone as they whip past at 115 kph. limestone cliffs rising sheer and dramatic above the foothills and aspen forests below are over 430 million years older than its lower slopes thanks to the massive McConnell thrust fault that shaped much of the front ranges.
There are at least 115 climbing routes up the Cambrian limestone face of Îyâ Mnathka and many hikes. In addition there is an extremely popular scramble route that I’m writing about here. Only a 45 minute drive from the bustling city of Calgary and prone to warm chinook winds in winter, there is are good reasons for its popularity. With so many people recreating in the area, extra care should be taken to consider others and your head must on a swivel while hiking and scrambling – especially if returning via the popular “scree route” under the giant stone face. People have died here – it’s a serious mountain just like any other, with the added twist of hosting dozens and dozens of humans on any given day.
You’re probably thinking that given how extremely accessible and popular Yamnuska is, I must have scrambled it before May 12 2024 and you’d be correct. But it has been almost 20 years since my last traverse in early September 2004! With the mountains still locked up in a hefty spring snowpack and an injury preventing me from golf or more strenuous activities, I decided it was time to give Yam another go. I wanted to see how much the route had changed in 20 years – especially chains that have been installed around the crux since my last visit. I drove to the busy trailhead on Sunday morning and hiked past several climbers preparing their gear before I was alone with cheerful birds in the Aspen forest covering Yam’s lower SE slopes.
Despite the several dozen cars in the lot, I continued to enjoy the morning to myself. The trail is extremely well signed with blue markers, signs and an obvious path. As it finally steepened there were stone steps cut into the slope and some signs marked “climbers only” to the left and “hiking trail” to the right. (It turns out that the scramble loop returns from the climbers side.) I strongly recommend that you do this loop counter clockwise. While it’s possible (of course) to do it the other way, it would be silly in the extreme. You would be ascending loose scree and exposed to falling rock from the giant face for longer. You would also be going against everyone else, never a good idea on a moderate and loose scramble route!
I smartly went right, continuing up a long switch backed Raven’s End trail, leading NE – away from the mountain at this point. I was delighted to spot some Prairie Crocus along the trail and stopped to photograph them with Îyâ Mnathka in the background. Here I ran into my first human. Dale Simpson passed me and would continue to stay just ahead of me to the summit. More on him later. Finally the NE trending trail reached the NE ridge and turned sharply back towards the NE end of the looming wall of stone. Various lookout points along the way make this part of the trail worth a hike on its own, in case you’re not a scrambler.
At the terminus of the Raven’s End hiking trail, a sign indicated the scramble route continuing ahead. So far this route was much more “civilized” than I remembered it from 20 years ago, but this isn’t a bad thing on such a popular route. Similar to the redeveloped Prairie Mountain trail, there is a point where it makes sense to take a route from rough to refined in order to save the humans from ourselves. Many folks get grumpy with the sheer numbers of us crawling like ants over so much of the landscape, but it’s hard to find fault with so many wanting to escape the concrete jungle. I’ve been doing the exact same thing for 25 years! I say to all those people who lament signs and human-built trails that they should lead the way and stay on the couch all weekend if they expect others to do the same. Also – they should virtue signal on Social Media while laying on said couch. 😉
My first glimpse of the obvious chimney at the NE end of the upper stone buttress of Yamnuska reminded me of an important bit of gear I forgot to bring along. My microspikes were sitting in my truck back in the parking lot. Oh well, I hoped that it wouldn’t be a “turn around” issue and started up a snow and ice track leading into the chimney. Blue markers dotted the rocks leading through the crack and a helpful sign at the top indicated that this was the easy bit. Things would only get more difficult from here so if the warm up chimney was too hot you’d be wise to turn around and enjoy descending Raven’s End. I decided to take a chance and continued following Dale up the backside of the mountain.
Snow made some sections trickier than others and for most folks I highly recommend waiting until the north side of the mountain is dry before attempting this route. Experienced alpine hikers and scramblers will not find issue with the amount of snow I had, but any more could be problematic. The route crosses several potential avalanche slopes and of course the crux area is best done dry.
After more than a few false high points and a whole lot of stumbling and bumbling my way along deep tracks in a softening snowpack I rounded one last corner and realized I was atop the crux. The terrain dropped off severely and with the snow I was temporarily confused until I spotted a chain bolted into the rock just below. A few delicate moves and I was grasping the chain, spotting Dale just ahead on the traverse. Despite the chain making things much more secure and safe, this is still a solid “moderate” on the scrambling scale. A slip here would injure or kill and you do yourself a big favour by not underestimating this section or treating it too casually. I had to think about things a few times on the short traverse, which hand to hold my poles in and where to put my feet. Ideally you should have both hands free to grasp the chain and should definitely wear a helmet.
Snow and ice made the section immediately after the crux feel a little extra spicy as well. There is some runout here and a slip on hard snow could result in a bad outcome. Again – I recommend waiting until conditions on the backside of the mountain are a little drier. At the very least I should have had microspikes on my feet and an ax wouldn’t have been a silly idea. After dropping down a shallow gully the route continued to rise, following scree and dry rock slabs and ribs to a final snow arete to the summit. Dale and I were the only two at the summit cairn and views were about as good as they get from this diminutive front range peak.
I chatted briefly with the person who’d passed me lower down on the Raven’s End trail and met Dale Simpson. Dale told me that he was training for Courage to Summit, a fundraiser for men’s health. He will be attempting 21 summits in 21 days in July 2024 and I encourage you to check out the link above and donate to a worthy cause. As someone who has struggled my entire life with various mental health issues I can attest that the struggle is very real and has very real life consequences. As a person born in the 70’s I can also attest to the stupid “macho” attitude that still affects me and prevents me from seeking the supports and help that I should.
After chatting with Dale and taking summit photos I continued on my own down the SW end of the route, still following many blue signs and an obvious trail in the snow and scree to the Goat Mountain col. Here I took another short break in warm sunshine, soaking in the spring atmosphere while listening to climber’s calls from the giant stone face looming over my position.
I remembered some down climbing on slabs from 20 years ago, near the Goat Mountain col but there was no such terrain. I have no idea where we were in 2004 but nowadays there are two signed routes descending from the col. Leaving no room for excuses, the scree route is signed with heavy cautions – “Not Recommended”. The col route is the recommended route but with snow in the trees and being a scrambler at heart, I chose to follow the scree trail which is still heavily marked with blue indicators and signs – not to mention an obvious trail.
The scree traverse trail runs under the giant face looming high above and is subject to rockfall – both natural and from climbers clinging to their positions in tiny colourful dots. The main bit of advice I can give is to make sure you wear a brain bucket here and don’t descend tempting scree too early. Also, don’t stop for lunch under the cliffs. I traversed further than I thought I would under the face before descending loose scree both on and towards an obvious trail far below.
Descending scree of the nature on Yamnuska’s south slopes is always fun. I spent a few moments near the bottom of the giant slope cleaning stones and pebbles from my shoes before continuing along an obvious descent trail through lightly forested, sunny slopes. The trail continued to be clearly marked and birds were chirping cheerily around me as I completed a warm and very pleasant trek to the parking lot.
When I set out to repeat Yamnuska two decades after my last visit, I wasn’t sure what to expect. As I wandered back into the busy parking lot I realized that I shouldn’t have waited so long! I plan to add this easy-to-access peak to a more frequent group of so-called, “training peaks” which includes easy front range objectives such as Prairie, Baldy, Wasootch, Ha Ling, Grotto and Yam. We live so close to these gems, why not get out some summer evening and get some training in while enjoying fun scrambling, good trails and incredible scenery? A highly recommended peak for scramblers properly equipped.
I will definitely be back.
