The Yaar! traverse

Earlier this month, Andy Traslin got some play for climbing both Yak and Nak mountains in the Coquihalla ski area in a day.  We see your Yak - Nak and raise you a Thar.

A few days ago, we considered doing the Nar (Nak - Thar) traverse, but once up there, we wanted to see it from the other side before we skied it.  So yesterday, Ricky and I set out to do laps on Thar to check it out.  This is what we ended up doing

No GPS.  Just great drawing with a mouse.

the Yaaar traverse, or Thar - Nak - Yar.  

There was already a skintrack in between Thar and Nak, but it eventually broke left and contoured around Nak.  We used it to start up Thar and then traversed around the bowl.  

From the back of the bowl.  Nak front right, Yak behind.

After skiing Thar, we returned to the track and took it all the way up Nak.  

Ricky scopes it out.  Nak and Yak from the top of Thar.

The weather wasn't great on top of Nak and there's awesome glades to ski below, so we did a run all the way down off it.  

As we climbed back out, vis improved and we decided to give Yak a shot as well.

The last pitch of Yak.

The climb up Yak is somewhat exposed, but less so if you go all the way to the saddle between Nak and Yak in the trees and then traverse across the face.  That's what we did.  The last 150 m. are steep, but yesterday, snow conditions were good.  That made for fairly straightforward climbing to the summit and great skiing right from the top.

Ricky, from the summit of Yak.

If you're just in it to bag the peaks, you could do it much more efficiently.  But there's great skiing on all three, so it's worth taking a few runs down along the way.

Hey Snowshoes! Step off my track, bro.

Last weekend,  we climbed up Nak at the Coquihalla to ski it.  A few times.  There were also some snowshoers there.  They apparently didn't want to break a trail.  So they used ours, and wrecked it.  So we made another one on the second lap.  Then they came down, used our new one, and wrecked it too.

Besides for safety, there aren't a lot of 'rules' in the backcountry and that's for the better.  I don't like people telling me what to do either.  But that doesn't mean there shouldn't be any etiquette.

The quintessential nature of the backcountry is of self-reliance.  When you go into the backcountry, you should be prepared to take care of yourself, fend for yourself.  That means, be prepared to rescue yourself, get stuck out there by yourself, and to blaze trail for yourself.  Not prepared to do that?  Go somewhere else.  There are resorts, lodges, guides, and trails that cater to exactly those folks.

These were those folks - for all intents and purposes, lost without the skintrack and not going very far if they had to do it for themselves anyway.

Now, I realize that someone else's trail is often the path of least resistance and, if it's there, I use it too.  But skintracks and snowshoeing trails are two different animals - one is for skiing; one is for walking.  I'm not going to ski all over your trail, and you shouldn't walk all over my track.  I also won't cut any overhead slopes on you or spray you in the face with blower pow.  Deal?

There's plenty of room in the backcountry to go around.