Selachii Peak – FA

Elevation Gain: 7,389m
Distance: 80km
Total Time: 12 days
Date: June 30th to July 12th, 2025

Andrea and I had been dreaming up a traverse this year after we both managed to schedule two weeks off of work. We were really keen to check out the ranges further north along the coast now that we’d been to the Pantheons and a personal trip to Ha-Iltzuk earlier this year. Picking which zone to explore was the hardest part, as there’s virtually endless terrain to wander about. Our choice would be made a bit easier though when I stumbled upon some potentially unclimbed summits around the Kapella River area. Located north of Bella Coola and situated between the Kitlope River on the western boundary and Kimsquit River on the east; this area looked to be an amazing place to explore.

While sleuthing around, we discovered that there had been a few parties in this area over the years. Glenn Woodsworth climbed Foresight Mountain and another unnamed peak further north in 1978. John Clarke, Shirley Rempel and Dave Lammers made a ski traverse in 1992 going as far north as the Cornice Creek area. Finally, Mark Grist and Mike Buda would do a variation of that same traverse in 2005 but continuing on to Kimsquit Lake.

Within that area we were particularly interested in two small groups of summits. The first was around an unnamed glacial lake that forms the western most part of the Kapella River head waters and the second was group of peaks further north east that are bounded to the west by Tipso Creek and Kapella River. After speaking with Mark Grist and confirming that the northern part of the traverse was well worth the journey we decided we would take a float plane into the unnamed lake and join up with Mark and Mike’s traverse to Kimsquit Lake. We’d carve out some time to explore the potentially unclimbed summits off of their main traverse line before getting picked up by float plane from Kimsquit Lake. In total, we set aside 14 days to complete the traverse and made the later regrettable decision to pack all 14 days worth of food on our backs.

On the 28th we drove out to Nimpo Lake and spent the following Sunday hanging around town for the weather to improve. Thankfully after just a days wait, Tweedsmuir Air whisked us off to the unnamed glacial lake. We had an hour long flight to pore over countless breath taking summits before our pilot, Sam, made a smooth glide down to the water up to a perfect sandy beach. After the plane left our sights, we got to work heading towards the glacier snout above the lake. First we had to pay the coastal bushwhack tax. This new greenery hadn’t appeared on any satellite imagery, but by the time we arrived it had a well established foot hold up to the glacier. Buckling under the weight of our back packs, we fought our way through the alder and brush before finally reaching easier moraine high above. A narrow canyon offered safe passage at climbers right and by late afternoon we had reached the glacier at last.

The glacier was dry and generally easy to travel on; save for one broken section. After negotiating a few crevasses, we bee-lined for the west slopes of “Selachii Peak”; our first unclimbed summit of the trip. So called, to match the Sharks Teeth Peaks theme. This summit also goes by “Kepler Peak” on bivouac. We ditched everything except 2 days worth of gear at the base and then scrambled up to a lovely heather bench at around 1400m. Here we set up camp for the evening and eyed up the nearby “Mount Kapella”, which John Clarke and co. climbed in 1992. Or at least, that’s the summit we believe to be called Mount Kapella. John’s 1993 account in the CAJ is a bit vague, but based on the rest of the report we can surmise that Selachii Peak was the 7400ft summit they attempted to reach 7km north of Mount Kapella. There is no other 7400ft summit which matches that description so that’s our best guess.

After a peaceful sleep, we woke up to a leisurely start and packed some lightweight day bags for our trip up to Selachii. A layer of clouds hung around the summits, but it was generally a pleasant day. We scrambled from camp up heather and snow the col with “Hammerhead Peak” another unclimbed summit we’d do later on. From the col we travelled north east along the ridge and up and over the south shoulder. At this point we spent the remainder of the ridge travel in the clouds but we didn’t have more than one or two third class moves to the summit. We placed a cairn and then headed down in the hopes of catching more sun.

Our return was easy and enjoyable and we spent another evening high above the glacier absorbing the remote and pristine ranges around us. On the following morning we packed up and made way for a camp near Hammerhead Peak.