Yak, Nak & Thar

Sept. 6 - Stats: 13.65 km / 1345m gain / 7 hours MT

This "hike" is one of the Quest-for-Ten challenge put on by Waddington's Outdoor Store. Sam: We would rate it as a 10, not a 4. I hesitate to call it a hike. It involved rock climbing, route finding, bush whacking, body-hoisting high steps, hanging onto branches and by-passing a mama bear in the upper meadows. At the end of the day we were tired and happy that other than a few scratches and bruises, we all came out in one piece!

After walking along highway 5 for about 10 minutes we came to the trail that dropped down a bit into a boggy section before climbing steeply upwards most of the way to Yak Peak.

From forest to bolder slope.

Markhor & the Needle behind it to the right - south.

For about 15 minutes we walked east along the granite base of Yak.

Then we climbed steeply upwards again, with the aid of one rope.

Three men that had spent the night on Yak, passed us just below the meadows by the col. They warned us about the mama bear with 2 cubs. They added that she seemed unconcerned about us humans. It was still nerve-wracking when we were so close to her. Especially when we both forgot our bear spray! We made noise to let her know we were there and then she looked at us as if to say, "Quit being so annoying!" She was very busy eating the ample blueberries.

The subpeak of Yak to the left and the peak to the right.

Subpeak wall.

Looking back at the col. Those guys were cautiously watching out for the bear.

After a quick look at the subpeak, we headed over to the true peak.

Looking down -- straight down, at the bottom of the wall.

Views from the Yak summit (2040m): Thar tucked in behind Nak to the left, sub peak and then the Needle -- east to south.

The ridge to the west of Yak.

Alpaca, Vicuna + Guanaco -- west.

We followed along the ridge to the next two summits. Its farther than it looks in this pic. From Yak to Thar is 1.55km.

Looking down at the subpeak -- south.

Heading down from the top. A tip: if you get about halfway up and get to a fork, go left. And when you're on top, take note of where you came up. Terry and I were both a bit confused as to where to head down again.

On the ridge looking back at Yak. I was now on new unchartered territory...

We had to drop down and ascend again not once, but twice before summiting Nak. The 3 dips we did between the 3 peaks added up to an additional 495m gain.

A long way down, left of the ridge.

At the Nak summit (2009m) -- south.

There's a green radio tower at the south end of the Nak ridge.

Once on the Nak summit, when I saw this view of the continuing ridge ending with Thar, I thought, "You've got to be kidding me!" How were we going to get down this first hump? So much for returning via the ridge. We'd rather go bushwhacking downhill than climb back up that.

Allana said this was not "scrambling" -- it was "F....ing rock climbing!!!"

Securing firm footholds before going straight down was mandatory.

One wrong step and we'd probably not survive this fall.

Allana ended up throwing her backpack down to give her body more room to manoeuvre.

Phew. There were two rock walls that we were glad to have behind our backs.

The trail that was sometimes nonexistent, clung to the cliff edge.

Then it curved away from the cliff and wrapped round to the south-facing slope before getting to the summit.

Views from the Thar summit: west to north: Zoa to the right.

South: Jim Kelly & Coquihalla Mt.

Jim Kelly & Coquihalla. I've summited both.

Right below us was Falls Lake.

Are we tough, or what?

We followed the route down closely on our All Trails App because my Garmin showed only a short section of trail. The last 20 minutes of trail we got off course a bit but were so close to the pipeline road, we decided to just wing it and head down. Fortunately we didn't run into any rocky bluffs that would've required backtracking when we were getting quite tired.

Intense bushwhacking through the alders. But it was the lesser of the two evils: return via the ridge or bushwhack through thick brush but with gravity on our side.

Mission accomplished. The rest was easy peesy walking along the pipe-line gravel road and then the highway. There were plenty of wildflowers there.

Almost back at the parking lot by exit #217.