This would be your standard Kane scramble of Mt. Kerr above Kiwetinok Pass in Little Yoho, with a twist - of which I'd be curious to hear comments. But first an eye candy to coax you into reading:


Driving towards Louise I had 2 objectives in mind: Jimmy Simpson or Mt. Kerr, and decided to head to Yoho on a whim. Takkakaw Falls parking lot - full to the brim, but I managed to sneak into spot on far parking lot (closest to trailhead). Thought about hiking via Iceline as it is way more scenic, but as I have never been past Stanley Mitchell Hut in Little Yoho decided on more boring but faster valley approach as I wanted to maximize time in Kiwetinok Pass environs. Took exactly 2hrs of fast pace (9.4km) to the Hut and continued without break towards the pass. Mt. Kerr came nicely into view as you cross the bridge just past warden cabin:
[Mt. Kerr is snowy dome upper center; shark fin to the left is higher, but unnamed]

Hike to the pass is very scenic with couple of unbridged, but easy glacial crossings. Reached Kiwetinok lake below Mt. Kiwetinok in about an hour from the hut (3 hrs from Takakkaw):
[Kiwetinok Lake and Pass]

From here climbed talus bench on left side and took first break of the day, studying Mt. Kerr ascent slope:
[Mt. Kerr ascent slope; Presidents to the left]

This is where things got interesting. In dry conditions this is (probably) just straight-forward talus bash. But recent snow made things considerably more difficult. There was not enough to really make footing better, but enough to create tons of small moats that covered gaps between boulders and made progress quite precarious. In upper part where slope really steepened up things got quite difficult; I even thought I might be off-route, but several cairns indicated the opposite. At least one spot I was not sure I'd be able to descend safely & it made me a bit nervous. After reaching the ridge things eased up, but it was still not a cakewalk. Line of cairns could be seen side-sloping on climber right and presumably there was some kind of trail there, but it was all snow covered & I found easier to stick to the ridge crest. Just as I thought troubles were behind, crux came -- steep 4-5 meter high wall. On his trip with RM Peakbaggers Vern & Co jumped here but I didn't think there was enough snow to make it safe. So I trashed down to the easiest spot, indicated by cairn -- it was still iffy, as rock was wet and slippery and there was moat below, but I made it. Rest was relatively straightforward and about 2 hrs (!!) since I left Kiwetinok Pass I tagged summit cairn (no register). Views were fantastic, to say the least and made all the effort well worth-while:
[Wide summit panorama showing Little Yoho, Wapta and Presidents. "Shark Fin" to the right is higher, but not Mt. Kerr on the maps]

[Summit view down ascent ridge towards Kiwetinok Lake; McArthur/Pollinger to the right]

[Cirque SW of Mt. Kerr with views of Mt. Carnarvon; doesn't look like a scramble from this angle]

Alan Kane says that although "Shark Fin" is higher, you need not bother continuing so that was good enough for me and decided to head back.

Now for the twist: I simply did not feel comfortable descending that steep and treacherous slope. While slip would most likely not kill me, chance for twisted ankle [or worse] was above my risk threshold. So I started looking for alternate ways down. I noticed lovely cirque between Presidents and Mt. Kerr that looked like it could be reached on considerably less steep terrain. It was still not straightforward as there were several short cliff bands, but -- to my surprise -- I found large cairns indicating easiest spot I was able to downclimb without any trouble (class 2 at most). I shut off GPS at the summit, so I can not show you the tracks - but here's the view of Presidents and the basin at the tarn (several thundering snow releases off west slope too)


Here I made U-turn and headed towards the Pass. Unfortunately it is not possible to go directly to Kiwetinok trail as there are cliffs and/or steep talus slopes so I had to go almost all the way to the pass. However it was just and easy hiking. This all sounds very roundabout, and it is, but under such conditions I felt it was way much safer. Finally parting shot at the point where I joined Kiwetinok trail:



3 hr return, of which last 1.5 with flashlight. Lots of people getting intoxicated and firing fire-crackers at the hut, so I flew by as fast as I could. Final tally was about 35 km and 11hrs; quite a solid day effort. Of course, better alternative is to camp at Little Yoho then include peaks at other side of the pass, as Steven Song & co did.

This was my first Kane peak in over 5 years since I did Little Hector in summer of 2010. It brings total tally to 65, and although I am not chasing peaks I feel I have enough reference to say - in such conditions Kerr is NOT an easy scramble. To quote Bob Spirko: "Mount Kerr is an easy scramble in dry conditions, but under snow it became a moderate scramble with a difficult crux"; this totally reflects my sentiment. I also think indicated 3hrs return time from Little Yoho is too optimistic; 4-5 would be more realistic, as only the hike to the pass (and back) will consume close to 2 hrs.

Alternate write-up with map, more pictures and downloadable GPS track here.

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Hey there, Zeljko,

That surprises me that it's been 5 years since your last Kane scramble!

It's been a couple of years since I was on Kerr but I was fortunate enough to have had no snow. This allowed me to reach the "true" summit (I have never understood why some mtns don't have their highest point named: Andromache and Kerr are two examples) prior to making my way to a lower third summit (another outlier) to the west. Instead of retracing my steps back up Kerr, I circumvented Kerr on its west side back to my stashed backpack at the col. Then it was on to Kiwetinok, Pollinger, McArthur & out Iceline Trail.

It's awesome that you 'discovered' a better way down Kerr. I kinda did the same with Skoki yesterday. Instead of retracing my steps back to Skoki Lodge prior to taking the trail to Oyster, I descended directly south off of Skoki to the trail. This was easy and took less than 40 minutes including a food & get-the-stones-out-of-my-boots break.

Regarding photos (you mentioned that it was too bad I didn't include any in my post), I took about 450 of them and not one of them can even begin to compare to your worst one! Awesome photos, as always.

Regards,

Grant(iculus)

Beautiful and exciting photos as always. Enjoyed your story telling as you so nicely narrated in good detail.

A little snow can make things a lot more treacherous in many places.

K

That would have been very neat; I had good look at that basin west of Kerr & for a sec considered as alternate return, but it was already late & I was day-hiking.

I will come back for sure for McArthur / Pollinger as views north were obstructed by these 2 from Kerr.

Great pictures as usual Interesting looking up these far away places in Google Earth.

Great to see that area with a dusting of snow. I was there in August and it was incredibly dry with the exception of the "cornice" when you gain Kiwitenok Pass proper.

I whole-hardheartedly agree with your assessment that the difficulty level on Mount Kerr would increase dramatically with snow. Even dry, there were ankle traps aplenty and as I was soloing also, I was particularly cautious on my descent. I probably would have called it at the pass had there been snow.

I like your unconventional exit - the basin between Kerr and the Presidents looks like a nice spot to check out.

C

Thanks! Judging by amount and size of cairns that basin has seen quite a bit of traffic. If I had time I'd have hiked towards the glacier beneath the Presidents for real close look. It might also be possible to drop from there directly to Kiwetinok Pass trail (join roughly where you have these couple of glacial creek crossings).

So much room for exploration; overnight really makes much more sense than day-hiking.

Excellent report, and as always, excellent photos. Bravo - this will be added to the list of hoped for objectives.