Iceline and Snow in One Weekend – Day 1 Afternoon Kiwetinok Pass Yoho NP 2024
Into the alpine.
Siobhan and Margaux approaching Kiwetinok Pass.
Day 1 Afternoon, out and back to Kiwetinok Pass from Little Yoho CG, 7.6 km, elevation gain/loss 408 m, 3 hrs.
Route to Kiwetinok Pass in red.
Elevation profile Day 1 Afternoon. The profile should be perfectly symetrical because the trip was an out and back. The tail on the right is much shorter. The reason is we used a log as a bridge over the Little Yoho River to cut 1 km off the trip.
The gang looking ready to go.
It was a little cool at lunch so we were bundled up a bit more than we had for the morning hike. I put Margaux’s rain jacket on her to act as a bit of a windbreaker. After hiking with Margaux for a few winters now I am quite sure she would have been fine without the jacket but I felt better with her wearing it.
1:45 pm crossing the Little Yoho River shortly after passing by the Stanley Mitchell Hut.
Love this photo. Siobhan is obviously enjoying herself but Margaux is giving her quite the side eye.
The sign gives no indication of Stanley Mitchell Hut or Little Yoho Campground. Glad someone painted on the way to ACC Hut (Stanley Mitchell). You can almost see the hut from the junction, but a silly omission on the part of Parks Canada.
A glaciated landscape. Margaux and Siobhan have to cross a small stream draining the glacial basins above. Margaux has a thing about water.
Siobhan almost across the stream. Margaux weighing her options.
Margaux safely back onto rocks with mostly dry feet. In her mind another potential disaster avoided.
The trail is around the right side of the the moraine. Margaux thinks dragging Siobhan straight would be fun.
After the excitement of crossing the creek it was back into the trees. Slowly there is more and more snow lining the trail.
Soon after leaving the trees we encountered a slightly larger if more gently flowing stream. More excitement ensued.
Siobhan is looking for a dry line across the slippery rocks but Margaux is following her nose.
In an act of self preservation Siobhan throws the leash to avoid risking getting wet feet by being janked by Margaux who is oblivious to Siobhan.
Siobhan got to keep her feet dry but had the trade off was having to hold onto a wet leash. Margaux has not noticed a thing.
The trail starts to head upward to the headwall of the valley. Siobhan must be working harder as she is back down to her t-shirt.
The amazing folds of the Secretary-Treasurer (2532 m) and the Vice President (3066 m) highlighted nicely by the fresh snow.
Second deep dive of the trip. I have been to Yoho NP on a number of and wondered about the names of the various mountains, President, Vice-President etc. The truth is not that exciting. I looked up the naming history on the British Columbia Geographical Place Names website. The mountains were all named by Edward Whymper to honour the men who held those positions with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Edward Whymper has his own mountain in southern Kootenay NP but he is best known as the leader of the first expedition to summit the Matterhorn. As I investigate more on the origins of the names of various mountain landscapes the more I feel that the naming process is very lacking in meaning and diversity.
The steep section of trail ends at the cliff in the distance after that it is continually uphill all the way to the top but at a much gentler grade.
Siobhan waving to the students on the cliff. When I showed this photo to the outdoor ed teachers at school they choked.
Looking down Little Yoho Valley. The open area in the distance at centre is where the Stanley Mitchell Hut is located.
I think the top of the cliff is the trees in the distance. Just a nice photo of the Margs and Siobhan.
I think Margaux is slightly off trail.
We have to go just to the right of the low centre hill and stay left of the large mass on the right.
I loved the feeling of the upper approach to the pass. The stark contrast of the dark rock and the white snow combined with a lack of vegetation gave the feeling of being in barren, remote landscape all our own. Even if I knew there were 20 something teenagers trailing us by just a few minutes.
Siobhan now has her jacket and hood on but no gloves.
Even in the snow the trail is obvious. A little cairn to help us find the way.
Looking back. It is a grey day and some nasty cloud off to the north.
Margaux relaxing and munching on some snow. The cold does not seem to be affecting her.
I had put Margaux’s jacket on because I was worried about her getting cold at the top. I am not sure what I was concerned with as Margaux is good in the winter without a jacket easily to about -18C and it was no where near that cold. Margaux was wearing her rain jacket so it did not offer a lot of warmth but did work as a wind jacket and she was probably fine with wearing it. I fuss a lot about all of the dogs’ comfort when on trail probably because they cannot let me know how comfortable they are.
Group photo at Kiwetniok Lake. Margaux does not like to stand on her two hind legs so we have to bribe her with treats. It is 3 pm. It took us just 1 hr 20 min hike up to the pass.
Kiwetinok Lake is said to be the highest named lake in the Canadian Rockies at 2455 m. I have never been able to confirm that. I can confirm in the warm summer months people have swum in the lake. No swimming was going to take place on this trip.
To get to the Kiwetinok Pass you have to walk around the edge of the lake to where there an natural pass at the base of the cliff.
Pano of Kiwetinok Lake.
Looking down over Kiwetinok Pass into the valley that holds the Kiwetinok River.
There are lots of Kiwetinok named features in the area. This photo is looking west and the river flowing in the valley bottom is the Kiwetinok River. Interestingly the Kiwetinok River does not actually originate from Kiwetinok Lake but drains the mountains on the west side of the pass. The Kiwetinok River is quite short but is the largest tributary of the Amiskwi River. The Amiskwi River flows eastward and joins the Kicking Horse River near Emerald Lake. Kiwetinok Lake on the other hand is the headwaters of the Little Yoho River that flows east past our campground before joining the Yoho River at Laughing Falls CG. The Yoho River empties into the Kicking Horse River just east of Field BC. So all the water from Kiwetinok Pass comes back together when the Amiskwi River flows into the Kicking Horse River just west of Field BC.
Siobhan and Margaux taking in the sights from Kiwetinok Pass. It is a pretty stunning view.
We hung out at the pass for about 20 minutes. The students turned up shortly and we chatted with them for a bit before heading back to the lake. All the adults hung around the lake and were not really keeping a close eye on the students up at the pass. We talked with a couple of the adults before heading back down the trail.
Even thought there is 30+ people within 2 minutes of this spot, if you point the camera in right direction it looks like you have the place all to yourself.
Happy team.
The way down. Margaux looking back to check on me. When hiking Margaux frequently looks back to see if the person behind is coming. There is some herding dog in her DNA and while she does not actively try and heard she does little things like this that are distinctly herding behaviour.
Even though there were other people in the campground we passed no people on way back to the campground. With the students behind us we had a very pleasant descent down to the valley.
Margaux often follows during descents. Usually it is when it is steeper and more technical than this section of trail.
Beginning the big descent. View of the backside of the Secretary-Treasurer.
Almost done. No more snow. Easy walking along the where recently once glaciers would have been. A lateral moraine in front of us. The mountain dominating the skyline is The Whaleback (2692 m).
A little dog training. To make sure Margaux comes back to us in an emergency we call “hustle” and reward it with high value treats which for Margaux would be beef jerky. This was just a practice so that she associates “hustle” with beef jerky. In a real situation we may not have any beef jerky, but that is not important. What matters is that she comes back to us. Practice is when we make the association with the word “hustle” and beef jerky.
Everyone in good spirits.
The Little Yoho River was very low and as we past by our campground on the far side of the river we noticed a large and well placed log across the river. We decided to skip walking all the way to down river to little bridge by the hut and back up again to our campground and walk across the log directly to the campground. I went first with Margaux who smartly chose to just barge across the water. Siobhan followed. There may have been some drama but no one fell in. The short cut did save us a little over 1 km of walking.
Siobhan carefully making her way across the Little Yoho River.
We arrived back in camp at 4:30 pm just a little under 3 hours since we left.
Nothing happier than a Margaux with a stick.
This is not Margaux having dinner but cleaning out the tupperware container that carried our dinner.
Happy Siobhan with a hot tea before dinner.
Its a little soupy but its cannelloni.
A little surprise at dinner. Thank you Mr Fricker.
Siobhan using her chair at dinner. Margaux wondering when she gets to clean out the pot.
Margaux was quite the star at dinner. There were quite a few groups at the campground but no other dogs. With no other dogs around Margaux was easily the popular person or dog at dinner.
What is all this for?
Siobhan made a Hot Toddy for each of us. She planned it as a surprise. So we had lots of alcohol for the evening.
Some people have taught their dogs to use sleeping bags while camping. We did not get Margaux until she was 14 months old and it was too late to try and get her accustomed to a sleeping bag. Since the weather was suppose to drop below freezing I brought along an oversized puffy dog coat for Margaux to act as her sleeping bag. I wanted it large enough to give her room to be able to curl up and get comfortable. We have used it a couple of time and it seemed to work pretty good. I checked her body temperature repeated during the night by sliding my hand underneath the jacket and she was always warm.
Margaux and her big puffy jacket. In the tent Margaux likes to sleep right up against me and in the photo it looks like Margaux must be partially on my sleeping pad.
All cuddled up with the Margs.
We did the best we could to get a selfie with Margaux in the tent. Looks like Margaux is wearing my Buff.
