Yak was a peak that we wanted to hit after doing Needle Peak last year. A pretty neat looking granite peak.



The trailhead was a little tough to find, marked with a ribbon and an obviously aged traffic cone. The first bit is also fairly overgrown and it's tough to find your way without GPS due to the remaining snow at the base of the hike. The snow vanished for a while once we got into the trees and started to climb.

It was a gorgeous hike up to the sport climbing area (Lunchbox Ledge I believe). As soon as we past the tree line, we had views of a lot of the other Cascade mountains.



However, once we got past the boulder scramble, the ice and snow started.



It was relatively compact and easy to traverse for some time. With the volume of the streams coming down the granite face, there were a number of recesses that we were wary of while crossing. We also had spikes on, which I'd highly recommend. There were a few people coming up while we were descending with running shoes and were really having a tough go at it.



Being caught sliding down this without gear to self arrest would have really, really sucked.

After finishing the ledge traversal, we got to a nice viewpoint/lookout and the snow let up for a bit, but started again after the fixed line scramble, about 10 minutes or so past the viewpoint.

Then, it just got flat out dangerous. Really soft snow on a decent incline. Postholing on our way up, and shifting snow under our feet on our way down.



We made it a little ways up before turning around due to that gut feeling that continuing would have been stupid. It was about noon at that point and the sun was starting to come out, so the conditions were only going to get worse for the descent. I had two instances of unintentional glissading, having to apply pseudo self-arrest (luckily only came away with minor ice burns). My girlfriend had to do the same once as well. We were happy to get out of there. Another group turned around at the same point.

To be fair, we're not expert mountaineers or anything so YMMV, but I personally wouldn't go any further without some rope and some other pro at this time of year.

We did get a great view of Needle and Markhor peaks while having lunch during our descent though:



Overall, it really is a great hike that we'll be coming back to later in the season to do again once the snow melts (Yak, Nak and Thar).

My GPS was apparently out to lunch that day, so a guess at the stats is about 4.5k and 720m up. About 4h round trip, slow moving on the snow and ice and a good stop for lunch.

A great shot of Yak to start.

You should get back up there in August - September as there is a meadow of a lot of dwarf blueberries; very delicious. Get them before the bears do...

K

Awesome trip report. I hiked this trail, successfully in August two years ago. We made it up to the Yak Summit, then ridge walked over to Nak. It was getting late so we were not able to make it to Thar, but definitely one of my favourite hikes. The Coquihalla Region is easily my favourite hiking destination I've ever experienced, and Needle Peak is my favourite solo hike overall. Thanks for the awesome pics and taking the effort to contribute!

Yeah, that's one of the reasons we didn't make it to Thar. Not because of the bears, but the lovely blueberries!