Looking for anyone who has hiked the ridge above Kiwetinok Lake that connects these three peaks. Considering this as a day hike from Stanley Mitchell Hut or Little Yoho Valley campground.

I have been to Kerr across the pass; shot of ridge and ascent (trash) route from the lake. Full report see here


For Pollinger / ridge Traverse (link to McArthur at bottom) see here:

Thanks zeljkok - I'm going to have some questions for you on other parts of this hike. I need to get from Twin Falls to Little Yoho/SMH and want to hike the length of Whaleback to do it. I believe you're one of the few who have done that. Meantime I'm looking for first hand knowledge of the Climbdown at the peak of Pollinger between Kewitinok and McArthur. I came across this picture and it looks pretty sketchy, especially for the folk I'll be hiking with.

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Yes, I did that long time ago. It was a long day, Takakkaw - Twin Falls - Whaleback - Whaleback Ridge (labeled as "Whaleback Mountain" at some maps) - Isolated Peak - Descent to Stanley Mitchell Hut - Iceline - Takakkaw.

Whaleback Ridge is great. I don't have pics/gps as I didn't document my hikes then. From memory you leave trail ~15min past the bridge on Whaleback trail, before it starts losing elevation. Initial bit is steep, but nothing too difficult - easy scrambling at most, maybe ~30min to crest the ridge. Then it's super nice ridgewalk followed by descent to glacial valley below Isolated Peak. Routefinding was not the problem, but there was a glacier higher up. Then there was faint trail, probably much better defined nowdays, that followed drainage down to Little Yoho Valley, emerged somewhere in vicinity of the Hut.

For Pollinger/Kiwetinok climbdown, just contact S. Song directly. He can not be bothered to participate on this site anymore, but will respond to email icyicefield@hotmail.com I believe he is in Ecuador right now, so it might take few days, but you are probably not doing that right now anyways.

Amazing zeljkok - as always, you are a wealth of useful info. You're right, not doing this soon, but hope to lead a group this summer on a real Canadian Rockies excursion. I'm calling it "The Iceline Trail Done Right", and I'll post a write-up here. They are all fit, but not experienced scramblers and I don't want to freak them out or make them feel unsafe. Taking them up on to Whaleback will already be pushing their comfort zone. I'll be reaching out to your guy, but I'm going to post my real question here below for future reference, and anyone researching this question. Thanks again!

So when I look up trip reports for hiking the ridge that connects the Kiwetinok-Pollinger-McArthur peaks, everyone mentions a climbdown (or climb up if you're going the other way) that has been described as everything from "Terrifying" and "Lots of exposure, fall and you're dead", to "Not too difficult" - I posted a picture above. Then I came across a report from some folks who seem to have used a bypass (they were going up), and I'm trying to understand what I'm missing. The trip report doesn't go into much detail on the pros and cons of the climb vs the bypass, so I'm hoping to locate someone who has knowledge of it. Consider the two pictures attached. In one you see the climbdown from below. In the other you'll see a hiker bypassing the climb on the east/left. Carefully analyzing the boulders in the two pictures I placed a green mark on the more zoomed out picture to indicate where the hiker would be. When I look at the hiker, this route doesn't seem scary in the least. Yes, it's steep, but not "slide down the mountain" steep - not at all. It seems to me if he can make it past the snow patch he's home free, which he could easily do if he hugs the cliff. So that's it really. What am I missing? Is this as easy as it looks, and the climbdown much ado about nothing?

Here's the trip write up by the way.
https://www.explor8ion.com/2006/08/1...kerr-traverse/
If anyone knows these guys, tell them I'm looking for them.

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Here's the route for the daytrip, with a couple of nights at Little Yoho, or Stanley Mitchell Hut. Seems easy enough except for the above.

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These are Vern Dewitt and Bob Parr, fairly well known in some circles. I don't think Bob has website, but you can contact Infinity Explorer directly at https://www.explor8ion.com/contact-me/