Elevation Gain: 823m
Distance: 7.11km
Total Time: 9 hours 27 minutes
Date: August 23rd, 2025
Yak Peak is an iconic summit in the Coquihalla Pass and easily recognized by its huge granite dome and slabs running all the way down to the highway. There’s a number of classic climbing routes on this peak, but they’re often run out in nature or altered by rock fall. Regardless, I knew the only way I wanted to summit Yak was by one of the climbing routes. Originally, I was thinking of a route called Clyde and Isabelle, but in the summer of 2025, a new route called Wind Walker was put up by Brent Nixon with some help from my friend Geoff. It seemed to have the hallmarks of a good time. 14 pitches up to 10b with most of the climbing in the 5.8/5.9 level and one blockbuster 10a pitch. I knew from speaking with Geoff there was one or two character building sections due to a large band of kitty litter in the upper reaches of the wall. Brent apparently found a way to team the choss and keep it safe and by all accounts, the route was supposed to be well protected and fun. I had one weekend in mind to get it done and I reached out to my friend HT to see if he’d be interested. A long multi was right up his alley, so the plans were set in motion.
On the weekend of August 23rd I met HT around 5:30am at the Zopkios Pullout and racked up. Another party was already there, but they were slow to get ready so headed out while they continued packing. I was a bit worried there’d be a conga line, so we set a fast pace up through the forest. We located the base of the route quite easily, thanks to the ample beta put out on Mountain Project.
After a quick round of rock paper scissors, I ended up with the first lead. This involved low angle slabs in the 5.6/5.5 range. HT took pitch two, up through a small roof/bulge and required a bit of rope stretching/simuling to get to the anchors on a 60m rope. I took pitch 3 up through some friction slab and a few cracks. The rock felt quite glassy here and I nearly went for a ride when my toe dropped down until it gained some friction. One more pitch of slab climbing took us into an interesting dihedral. This was the first pitch that took gear and it protected nicely.
HT climbed next through a nice finger crack system and then I lead one more slab pitch up to the start of pitch 8 which was an interesting looking off width. As with all of his pitches, HT cruised through on lead and dispatched with a tricky friable section near the top. Now came the supposed block buster 10a corner pitch. This was a 50m gear pitch with lots of potential laybacking. I racked up and headed off. Most of the climbing proved to be a combination of good foot jamming on the right with smears and edges on the left. By alpine standards it was quite well protected and the real challenge is the calf endurance as you work your way up the never ending corner system.
After this pitch the climbing takes a different character. Pitch 10 is more friable rock with techier climbing and some cracks interspersed. HT found a reasonable line through and the follow wasn’t so bad. Now came the two crux pitches. I took the first 10b and found some fun techy face climbing which was heroically bolted. Above that we hit the famous kitty litter band where a massive anchored chain allowed me to hoist my self through the scree to the next anchor. The crux was over as quickly as it arrived. Finally, HT lead us up through the interesting off-width 10b. This was my, in my opinion, the best pitch of the route. A fun layback sequence into some off-width followed by thoughtful climbing to maneuver around loose holds and choss.
Two more easy pitches of low 5th got us to the top and then we walked around the false summit and scrambled up to the top. After a brief hiatus on the summit we started our way down the scramblers trail. This trail was quite steep and honestly pretty bad for such a popular route. Most of the descent is characterized by loose pebbles over hard packed dirt and even a dabble of bushwhacking. Now it still beats actual bushwhacking, but for a such a high traffic area I was surprised about the state of it all.
We reached the car not long after and that concluded a nice 9.5 hour journey up and down Yak Peak. This is one of those summits where I’d call it “climbing in the alpine”, but not alpine climbing. Similar to anything in Washington Pass. That doesn’t diminish the route by any means though and it’s nice not having to scrape dirt or lichen out of cracks to find protection. I have to give a big shout out to Brent and co for developing a fine route and making the most out of the kitty litter band. I can definitely recommend this one if you’re looking for a moderate outing with a bit of adventurous choss.