Whaleback Mountain Traverse
Completed during intermittent snow/rain squalls, possible with some snow (although I'm not sure why or how you'd be up here in winter). This was the entire Day 2 of our Takakkaw Falls backpacking trip, hence bringing our backpacks for the whole thing. If completing this as a day trip from the Little Yoho Valley, it is possible to make this "just a hike", but for the entire traverse or ascent from the main Yoho Valley it has a short unavoidable section of easy scrambling (from what us and our routes could find). This is a very enjoyable way to spend a day travelling between the Little Yoho Campground and the Twin Falls campground or as a day trip from either (or even the Takakkaw Falls parking lot).
Whaleback Mountain is a long and largely flat ridge coming off the east side of Isolated Peak. Technically it is just a sub peak of Isolated (and Isolated is really a sub peak of McArthur if we really get into it), but Whaleback Mountain does deserve its name as a summit/peak. If you analyze very carefully, you may be able to come to the conclusion that it was named because it looks like a whale's back, but only after careful analysis of course. This peak, along with Isolated Peak are visible from Highway 1 for only a brief moment right around the spiral tunnel viewpoint, so that is definitely a bonus, as one could see their exact route from the highway over 15 km away.
The Takakkaw Falls parking lot is situated a 13 km drive up the Yoho Valley Road (about 15 minutes) and the total driving time from the Calgary city limits is about 2:15 hours. The Yoho Valley Road is closed from October 10th to June 14th, so be mindful of this when planning your trip. From the parking lot, you can choose to take either the Iceline Trail or the Yoho Valley Trail to access the starting point at the Little Yoho Valley campground. The Iceline Trail is the scenic approach, but has more distance and elevation and is detailed in another trip report. For the Yoho Valley Trail approach, head north from the Takakkaw Falls parking lot and hike the long trail to the Laughing Falls campground. Just after the campground take a left and continue up to the Yoho Valley where you will soon take another left and then for the next intersection you continue straight until you arrive at the Stanley Mitchell Hut.
Although there are countless options for trips on this peak, this route describes the traverse of Whaleback Mountain from the Stanley Mitchell Hut to Twin Falls campground. A GPS route such as Alltrails is advisable for this entire traverse. At the east side of the hut, there is a sign and trail that leads back to the main Yoho Valley, it is a this point that you do not follow the sign, instead turning left on a noticeable, but small trail leading straight up into the woods. The trail is okay, and you will likely run into many deadfalls along with creeks and bogs. As you get into the meadow, the trail begins to disappear. Find your way up through the meadow using countless cairns to guide you. Ascend the left side of the creek until the cairns show an obvious crossing. Continue up and toward the col between Isolated Peak and Whaleback Mountain, and then take a right turn up a scree trail that gains Whaleback Mountain. Top out on the ridge and you are soon at the summit. Continue over the ridge, staying on or close to the ridge crest, until the grade begins to steepen dramatically in front of you. As the ridge comes to an end, drop down to your left on moss and dirt ledges (easy scrambling) until you reach the meadow. Head in the left drainage and find cairns and a decent trail. Hike down to the intsersection with the Whaleback Trail where you turn left (or you could go right if you really wanted). Hike down the long trek to Twin Falls and then the longer switchbacked and graded trek to the Twin Falls chalet. Take a left here and descend more to the Twin Falls campground.
Day 2 of our Takakkaw Falls backpacking trip started out absolutely smoking (not). At around 9:00 am, we awoke and my dad headed out to gather some gear, and I resumed my sleep, disturbed by intermittent rain showers. I finally rolled out of the tent after 10:00 am and everything was damp. Everything. Literally all of it. Oh well. We expected this. We got breakfast going under our favourite tree and slowly got the day started. The rain ended up stopping at some point, so we were good to go. A while later, at 12:30 pm (yes pm, I know), we were ready to roll, hoping to bag Isolated Peak and Whaleback Mountain if the non rain weather held.
As we started, we noticed snow on the Presidents. Hmm... It looked cool though that's for sure.
At the east side of the Stanley Mitchell Hut, we found the obvious trail leading straight up.
We had to deal with a couple sections of fallen trees on the grind up, but nothing too bad.
After a boggy section, we were almost in the meadow. Our first objective, Isolated Peak lies straight ahead.
A few minutes later, we arrived at the meadows where Alan Kane recommends a nap. It was just as serene and peaceful as imagined, with the sounds of birds chirping, the gurgle of the creek and the crashing of a distant waterfall.
At this point, the weather was holding and all the rock was dry, so we were hopeful to bag both peaks? Maybe we'd get lucky as we usually do.
There were still plenty of low clouds hanging over the Presidents though, so if we bagged anything there wouldn't be the best views anyways.
As we got higher up the valley, we kept to the left side of the creek and followed very frequent and obvious cairns.
As we approached the waterfall, this was our crossing point of the creek. We easily hopped over this section and were guided by the cairn on top of the big gray stone at right.
Looking back again there were still clouds hanging low. Maybe some blue sky was hinting at a bit of better weather?
Nope. As we angled left to find a spot to drop our packs for Isolated Peak, a rain/sleet squall blew in and soaked us.
Me eating as a storm blew in and soaked everything. It also dropped the temp too so we put on every piece of clothing possible.
We ended up abandoning our plan to complete Isolated Peak, and instead opted to just hike over Whaleback Mountain since it wouldn't matter what the weather looked like for that peak. Isolated Peak is a lot harder of a scramble requiring route finding and ideally dry rock, both of which we did not have. Plus our packs would be completely soaked even with the covers, so we just skipped it. We did get an extra peak than anticipated the day before anyways so it would be fine. When we come back to do the Presidents, we'll probably hit Whaleback again and do Isolated, since I just want to clean up the whole area.
We then began hiking up to Whaleback Mountain using my Alltrails route and found a nice trail heading up and to the right of the image. Obviously there had to be blue sky now.
The trail disappeared in places, but we made our way up alright on semi solid footing.
The views then opened up just enough to reveal this beauty of a photo. The toe of the Glacier des Poilus and Isolated Peak. Majestic. We'll surely be back for this on a clear day.
The desolate valley next door with its big lake (I can't find a name for it) as we topped out on the ridge. Mount Des Poilus is hiding in the clouds at left, with its unnamed glacier leading to the lake below. Yoho Peak occupies the right of the image. I'd like to hit it the next day if we have good weather.
Now that I think about it, it's funny that the Glacier des Poilus is situated on Mount McArthur and not on Mount Des Poilus. So weird. It could be a mistake from the map? Or maybe it was intentional? This one has me a bit stumped...
Looking to the summit. Not far now at all.
Here we are! Another one in the books.
I absolutely love this picture of my Dad bracing the winds of the next squall on the summit.
Not the best summit pano of all time, but you can see a little bit.
Looking the other way.
A summit rainbow. I stared in awe at it for t the few minutes that it existed. It was one of the most beautiful things that I've experienced. My iPhone camera just does not do it justice.
As I stayed on the summit, signed the register, took pictures, etc. (my regular routine), my Dad continued down the ridge. He was not necessarily enjoying the howling wind and snow.
As I began the next portion of the traverse by descending from the summit, I got this nice picture of the ridge. The left side is a sheer and kind of scary drop off.
Looking back, you can see the clouds blowing over the ridge. This effect was very cool.
After walking on the ridge for a while and trying to catch up to my dad, I noticed that he started descending and traversing on a long scree slope on a trail. I could've gone over the next small bump on the ridge or followed him. I ended up following him and that was a mistake!
As I finally caught up to him I got mad that he took this horrible traverse. I guess a spur trail lured him down. Do yourself a favour and don't let it lure you down too, just stick to the ridge, it's easier.
It got a bit warmer and the sun came out for a bit on this slope, so we took a little break and watched the clouds blow around and the gophers scream at eachother.
We then joined back with the ridge and dropped down the steep NE side. We were a bit surprised by this bit of scrambling, but made it down easily nonetheless.
It looks gnarly from the bottom, but is nothing more than class 2. The way that we came down is a little left of center, but it's possibly a bit easier closer to center.
As we scoped out the skier's left drainage of the meadow, we found this trail that led down to the Whaleback Trail.
At the intersection with the Whaleback Trail, we took a left toward Twin Falls. We could've also taken a right and gone down switchbacks and then back around to the Twin Falls Chalet. Either route works and they have similar distance and elevation.
Heading towards Twin Falls.
We stopped about half way to the falls for another long break with a snack (no wonder this trip took so long) and then kept going on the endless downhill.
We were almost down to the falls at this point.
A snow cave near Twin Falls.
Thank the lord there was a bridge. I would've turned right back around if I had to ford this "creek".
Time to check out the falls from the top! I just walked straight over through some trails in the bush.
At the top of Twin Falls I wondered why my viewpoint wasn't very good. Likely this is because it is just ahead at left. Jumping between the two ledges would be some cool parkour. Apparently people have died up here just from standing and slipping though so maybe not the best idea...
I ran back and caught up with my dad and we both hiked up a ways on the trail before descending on steep switchbacks.
Throughout the rest of the descent, we found many delicious blueberries like this. We also ate many.
Apparently the bears did too. We were calling out frequently throughout this section and had the bear spray ready.
We then had one last bit to go to the Twin Falls campground.
I found it a bit irritating that they don't have the distance on these signs like every other area. Anyways, through this section we had a bit of a tough go of it and were really feeling the elevation loss. I actually think that the elevation loss hurts more physically and mentally than elevation gain does, especially considering how tiring this day was.
As we got the the campground, we immediately set up the tent and had dinner before it could rain on us again. This campground is a lot smaller than the Little Yoho one and I like the Little Yoho one a lottt better. The Twin Falls campground is literally just a spot in the trees with no views by a loud river at the end of a very low valley. Not extremely useful.
For some reason it decided to pour as we were making dinner, so afterwards we went straight to the tent. After looking around on the map for a bit, I had the genius idea of doing a highway scramble after hiking out the following day. I mean why not? We were all the way out here and didn't really want to hit anything else in the valley that we were in. We decided that if there was good weather and we could get a permit, that we'd try for Mount Stephen. If not then maybe something like Mount Field would do. After planning this, I was excited, and it took a little longer than the night before to fall asleep, but it was dark enough and I was tired enough that I dozed off rather quickly.
In retrospect, days like this are bound to happen in the mountains and cannot be avoided if you want to be out often. So now, I figure I might as well enjoy them (as I did of course), even the "bad days" have many amazing moments that are still worth getting on the mountain for. Even though they might not be as spectacular as some of the great, warm, and sunny days, I think they're still better than being on the couch.