Yellow Mountain
September 3, 2016
Mountain
height: 2672 m
Elevation gain: approximately 1650 m
Ascent time: 6:00
Descent time: 6:00
Scrambling
with Mark and Raff.
You
had better plan something special when your big brother turns 50. We had a host
of fairly big objectives in mind, but the weather was going to take issue with
that. With bad forecasts in almost every quadrant of the Canadian Rockies we
drove south to see if our friendly neighbours in the US Rockies would be
kinder. Unfortunately, for the mountains we choose, they were not. Low-lying
clouds, high winds and some of the most potentially volatile weather we had
seen in a while stopped us dead in our tracks as we drove towards St. Mary’s.
As such, the birthday boy suggested something as front range as possible. Not
only did Yellow Mountain fit that criteria, but it was also a mountain that
Mark and I had discussed doing for years - “The
experience is unlike anything encountered elsewhere in Glacier National Park,”
words from Gordon Edwards (A Climber’s Guide to Glacier National Park).
The
suggested route via the super cool Ptarmigan Tunnel was closed and so we
decided to try going up the alternate descent route via Poia Lake. The route
started off well as we gained what felt like a significant amount of elevation
quickly, over the far east shoulder of Apikuni Mountain. Had we looked closely
at the topo map, we would have realized that the next part of the trip means
losing almost all that elevation, down to Poia Lake – not a big deal, but I
whined like a baby most of the way down, dreading the regain on return!
Admittedly,
we are all very skeptical the decent weather above us would hold. All hell was
breaking loose over everything to the immediate west, northwest and southwest
(I remember thinking to myself, “Hey, this is what Armageddon will probably
look like!”). Nevertheless, we eventually reached the beautiful (and
white-capped) waters of Poia Lake and continued around it. The alternate
descent route description, all of a sudden, seemed very complicated and after
looking upslope and at our topo map, we decided to abandon those directions and
just head straight up the mountain, hoping that an easy ridgewalk to the summit
would follow.
Gaining
the ridge above was bit of a grunt in places, but wonderfully scenic and
colourful throughout. A gully of steppy and varied rock rendered much of the
ascent heaps of fun, while also taking our minds off the huge elevation gain
upon us and the increasing blustery weather around us (still relatively blue skies
above though - fingers-crossed!). Raff and I were both impressed that Mark was
keeping up with us with ease, even though he only does a couple of mountain
ascents each year (three young bundles of joy will do that to ya!). Raff and I
had both spent much of our summer in the mountains and so we both felt
relatively fit (I’ve come to learn that “relative” becomes an increasingly
important word as you age!).
The
ridge granted us two things: 1. our first good view of the main bulk of Yellow
Mountain – and yellow it was, though disappointingly perhaps not as striking as
I was expecting; 2. a vicious and biting west wind that prompted all three of
us to put on every single item of clothing in our packs. Within minutes I was
wearing my down winter jacket (underneath my serendipitously appropriate bright
YELLOW outer jacket), a super cool Calgary Stampeder toque (that I stole from
the birthday boy – now that he’s 50 he probably doesn’t remember I stole it), a
bright red neck gaiter (also pilfered from the old man), my orange helmet for
added head warmth and my thick winter mitts (good to minus 30 degrees
apparently!) Mark and Raff decked themselves out in red (not serendipitous
until near the day’s end) and off we went, directly into the wind and towards
the summit, still a fair distance away.
It
turned out that our route decision was a very good one, possibly providing the
shortest and easiest route to the summit. The landscape was uniquely barren, as
described, but I, for one, was still a little underwhelmed….but not for long!
It
was time to be overwhelmed and reaching the southwest ridge of Yellow Mountain
did just that. There, we were graciously greeted by a spell-binding view of one
of Glacier’s more prominent and photogenic peaks, Chief Mountain and equally
stunning Gable Mountain – that’s more like it! In addition, clear skies continued
to prevail above us and to the east, even though it was downright nasty around
us. A wall of thick, ominous storm clouds stood guard over everything to the
west. Thankfully that wall was content to stay put.
Exactly
6 hours after leaving the car, we arrived, in great spirits, at the summit. The
view was outstanding, even with the giants of park, mounts Merritt and
Cleveland, completely hidden behind the wall of clouds. The colourful hues and
dramatic forms of Chief and Gable were mesmerizing. And that was just the
proverbial drop in the bucket. A short traverse to the east yielded even more
staggeringly beautiful views, in this case of Yellow Mountain itself, and two
lakes nestled between Yellow and Chief. Some of the rock colours on Yellow were
totally out of this world, i.e. combinations we had never seen before in the
mountains. The view instantly became one of my favourites of all our trips.
Although
a traverse of the entire mountain looked quite feasible, getting back down to
the trail was an unknown and so we decided to forgo that option. Instead Raff
pulled out the Jagermeister and a birthday drink and long summit stay was
shared.
On
descent, just because we had the time, we decided to take a little diversion to
a minor peak to the west. It looked pretty steep from a distance but was
actually just moderate scrambling. Squeezing up and through a chimney like
feature was really cool. Even cooler was the fact that this was all up and
through bands of magnificent red argillite – and just when we thought we
couldn’t experience any more incredible colours. The view from this minor
summit was as amazing as that from east of the true summit, thanks to the huge
slabs of red rock adorning the summit. After another lengthy stay of snapping
photos and gasping in amazement at the beauty of this mountain, we started
back.
The
descent was long but easy and regaining all of the elevation up and over the shoulder
of Apikuni far less excruciating than we were expecting. The wind had died down
too and the skies above remained clear, making the return trip quite pleasant.
We made it back to the car just shy of 13 hours after leaving.
Yellow
Mountain is everything that it is advertised – a wild and remote trip with
landscapes and colours will amaze and inspire you. I cannot think of a more
enjoyable way to celebrate a 50th - Happy Birthday Bro!!
