Mt Yamnuska

SixinSixty©

Determination, fortitude, courage, and consistency

Mt. Yamnuska is the result of a McConnell thrust fault. The McConnell fault forms the front range of the Canadian Rockies. The movement of the earths plates has caused the older 520 million year old Palaeozoic limestone rock on the face cliffs to be lifted and thrust above the newer 75 million year old Mesozoic rock on the scree slopes of Mt. Yamnuska base.

The mountain is a popular mountain for rock climbing and scrambles by local and international enthusiast. This is the first mountain seen on highway #1 just a short drive from Calgary on highway #1 and not from Canmore, Alberta in the Bow Valley park region.

It is officially named Mt. John Laurie however, it is well know by the native name Mount Yamnuska “wall of stone”. John Laurie was a founder of the Indian Association of Alberta.

There are many routes to the summit. Before I have taken the East-West transverse along the back side of the mountain (North facing). The traverse route has moderate exposure where a cable is provide to walk along a narrow ledge. In March snow is still present on the North side and we decided to take the west route to avoid snow cover on the back side of the mountain. Also we avoided a hike up the scree slope by following the route along the face cliff as noted in the route.

We started early morning to avoid the crowds and to take advantage of the frozen trail. On the return trip the trail was turning to mud by noon. From the parking lot, we headed west and picked up a trial which took us towards the mountain. For 30-45 minutes, the first part of the hike is a single trail with no forks. After the first fork we continued west and picked trails which gained us elevation working ourselves to the west. At one fork, we took a trail east instead of a west trail. The west trail has a loss in elevation. The east trial lead us to the most easterly section of the scree slopes as shown in the route photo.

Once at the face cliff, we followed the path west. As we continued west we noted change in the color and texture of the scree. The most easterly part of scree slope has traces of coal and a thin layer of coal which can be seen in the face of the mountain. This darker color in the scree slope can be seen from the highway.

As you reach the west end of Mt. Yamnuska the color of the scree is predominantly sandy in color. Photo #3 taken from the west side of the scree shows the cliffs and the scree slope. Once we reached the end of the scree slope we crossed around to the north side of the mountain. We stayed south of the scree slope on the North side as we continued up towards the summit. In early March, there still is a fair amount of snow and we had to be careful with our footing to avoid a fall on the rock. We spent only a few minutes at the summit because of the cold wind and we headed back down the rocky slope avoiding the snow covered scree slope thinking it would slippery.

At the west end of Mt. Yamnuska we took a break to enjoy the scenery. After a break we continued back towards the scree slope. Once we came to major scree run, we quickly reached the tree line. This major scree run can easily seen from the highway.

By noon we were back on a well used trail. As well, we were glad we came early because the trail was thawed and was turning into sticky mud. Once in the parking lot we cleaned off our hiking boots and we were back into Calgary early afternoon.

Mt. Yamnuska

West East

Mc Connell Thrust Fault

New Rock

Old Rock