I wrote this book to collate and bring together all the information on both hiking and climbing in the West Kootenay – a spectacular area in south central British Columbia – part of the southern Columbia Mountains.
It is the home of the Kootenay Mountaineering Club. This book includes all the places the club has gone to over the last 60 years on a regular (sometimes irregular) basis. The publications of the club, The Karabiner, and the Newsletter are a wealth of information. Though available at www.kootenaymountaineeringclub.ca, there is no index, and information is scattered. I have used these trip reports and personal information collected over 40 years of hiking and climbing in the area to produce the individual trip reports.
Contact me with any additions or corrections at rvperrier@gmail.com.
West Kootenay Boundaries
The West Kootenay extends from Trout Lake in the north to Creston and the US/Canada border in the south. I have also included a significant section on the Columbia Mountains in the US – an area with some wonderful hiking.
On the north, the Badshots and the north Purcells are best accessed from the West Kootenay.
The west and east borders are more nebulous – many of the places we go cross the watershed crests of both the Monashee and Purcell Mountains. Many access points from the “far side” are included for completeness’ sake. Many mountains in the south have had little mountaineering interest but are regular KMC trips and nothing has been collectively written about them before. Grand Forks in Boundary Country is not specifically in the West Kootenay but is in the member area of the Kootenay Mountaineering Club.
• No publication has had both trails and climbs together in the same place.
• My style is very terse – I use words sparingly – there is little chit-chat on any of the posts. But I always make sure all the relevant info is included.
• I have tried to use a consistent format identical in every post:
1. A brief summary of the trail or mountain. The Rating is my estimation of the general value of any trip.
2. Statistics. Every trip has a list of basic facts – Location, Difficulty, Elevation gain, Key elevations, Distance, Time, Season, Access, and Map (1:50,000 topo maps but no maps exist on this site yet).
3. Driving Instructions. A complete guide to driving access – only significant junctions are given their own line; minor side roads are not – tries to abbreviate the multipage descriptions of the Copelands.
I have used information from notes made on the margins of my maps over the years, Earl Whipple’s guides, the KMC newsletters, John Carter’s Hiking the West Kootenay, Copeland’s two books, Janice Strong’s Mountain Footsteps and other guidebooks from the Okanagan and East Kootenay.
Abby Wilson’s West Kootenay Hiking (www.westkootenayhiking.ca) has become the mainstay of hiking info for the West Kootenay. Websites are ideal platforms for hiking information changes so often. I would think that it will completely replace Copeland’s books as the go-to source of hiking info.
Road information is in constant flux as roads especially bridges wash out with spring storms and run-off, logging patterns change, and forestry deactivates roads that have little industrial use. Water bars are a necessary evil to save the roads.
The Backroad Mapbook – Kootenays is an invaluable source on roads – it names, indicates some idea of the size of the road, and often gives milages at junctions. It also includes virtually every trail – historic or not – that has ever existed, campgrounds etc.
4. Route/Trail info. As road access changes, trail use changes. Kokanee Glacier PP is a classic example. As a result of road closures, there is no access to the north-third of the park on Keen Creek Road. As a result. Joker Millsite to Joker Lakes, Joker Millsite to Slocan Chief Cabin. Access to the west side of the park was also impossible as the Enterprise Creek Road was blocked for many years but was finally opened in 2022. The Enterprise Creek trails were not maintained and probably were rarely, if ever used. Coffee Creek FSR, never used much anyway, is also washed out. All these trails are becoming progressively overgrown. Lemon Creek Trail has perennial problems with one crossing of Lemon Creek and this trail is no longer maintained or used to access Glory Basin and the Sapphire Lakes. The Nilsik Trail, another access was always more of a route than a trail.
Park funding has plummeted and trail maintenance has suffered to the point that volunteers play a greater role than parks.
First ascent information is retained but I have eliminated all information on references, except the ones I have used.
5. What to do? When the trail ends, there are often many possibilities of places to go and explore. Here I have tried to meld the trail information with the climbing information supplied by KMC climbers in the KMC Newsletter and Earl Whipple’s guidebooks
If digital, it is easy for everyone to access, free, and easy to update. It is also much easier to organize, navigate, and find what you want. Books may be out of date when they arrive on the bookstore shelves. Heavy books are a thing of the past – simply go to the website, print off the map and you have everything you need – and only one page to carry.
By making this information available, it is my goal to share all the special places in West Kootenay. The resulting increased use will be more than made up for by you discovering this truly magnificent area. There will always be secret places some don’t want to be advertised. As I have tried to make this encyclopedic, I have tried to have a post on all these secret gems too.
HISTORY of MOUNTAIN WRITING in Southern BC
The oldest of the publications is by the famous explorer Walter Moberly, one of whose men was the original discoverer of Rogers Pass, before Rogers. A copy of his book is in the Archives of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff.
Two famous and indispensable books for the guidebook author and the historian of these mountains are those by Arthur O. Wheeler (1905) and Howard Palmer (1914). Both are collectors’ items now found in mountaineering libraries. The atmosphere of the early exploration of the Columbia Mountains (then the Interior Ranges) is well conveyed; the two authors were active mountaineers, and Wheeler was a mapmaker as well. An outstanding group of companions in the early history of these mountains was Holway, Butters, and Palmer. Today, their climbs are nothing unusual, but in their own day their ascents were done in such isolation that they were bold indeed and an accident could mean a serious threat. The biography of Holway is given by his friend Howard Palmer (1931). “The Guiding Spirit” is largely a biography of the well-known mountain guide Edward Feuz, Jr. and is quite entertaining. There is only a little reference to the West Kootenay area in this guidebook, however.
J. Monroe Thorington was the first of the modern guidebook authors (preceded by Wheeler and Parker, 1912) and produced the 1937, 1947, and 1955 editions of the “Climber’s Guide to the Interior Ranges of British Columbia”. His book on the Purcells (1946) is a recounting of his adventures there and is another collector’s item. Thorington sometimes climbed with the superbly competent guide Conrad Kain whose autobiography is titled “Where the Clouds Can Go”. Roland Neave’s book about Wells Gray Park is not a mountain guidebook for the most part but has a few descriptions of mountain routes.
The internet also carries information on access – the Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia and www.bivouac.com.
But most of these books did not include much about the area the Kootenay Mountaineering Club frequents most – the southern portion of all the ranges. Most of the early mountaineering happened around Rogers Pass. It is suggested that most mountains in the West Kootenay were probably climbed by the early 1900s – by miners – and these guys were not well known for writing guidebooks.
MODERN SOURCES
Hiking Guides
There have been several books written on hiking specifically about the West Kootenay. I believe the first was “Exploring the Southern Selkirks” by John Carter and Douglas Leighton. Published in 1980, it had many of the trail hikes that we do today in the Selkirks, but excluded the Monashees and Purcells.
In 1993, John Carter published “Hiking the West Kootenay”. Two sections on the Purcells and many smaller trails were added for a total of 84 described hikes. But, just as a second edition was to come to press, in February 1996, John Carter died in an avalanche. The book was never published and there was a need for a new trail guide as many new trails had been built.
That void was filled by the Copelands, an American couple who make their living by writing hiking guidebooks. In Canada, they wrote their controversial “Don’t Waste Your Time” books on the Canadian Rockies, Cascades, and BC Coast Mountains. They then moved to Riondel and wrote “Don’t Waste Your Time in the West Kootenay” published in 2000. It gives reliable road access information and trail descriptions and is well-liked by many locals. Hikes were rated from one to four boots and reflected their opinionated views. To quote them: “Asking locals for trail information led us to mountaineers who bushwhack like baboons and climb like lizards and whose advice therefore emphasizes vertical, trail-less terrain. What’s a hiker to do? Our precise, comprehensive directions will guide you to a transcendent mountain experience!” They were referring to the members of the Kootenay Mountaineering Club who showed them many of the routes, of which I am a proud member. Of course, we use all the same trails described in all their guidebooks.
68 hikes were covered including several in north Washington and Idaho. Many were minor including 16 on lakes that nobody goes to. I find them very wordy. Going past the end of the trail is only for experienced mountaineers and no information is given. Virtually every KMC trip climbs a mountain. They renamed things – the “Old Growth Trail” was changed to “Cedar Grove”. Some hikes were duplicated – Kokanee Glacier exists as a day hike and a backpack (admittedly to Lemon Pass). In 2005, they followed up with “Where the Locals Hike in the West Kootenay”. Now with colour pictures but only 50 hikes, this was another economic venture for the Copelands. These two books were the only ones available for purchase in 2015. Amazingly they are still the go-to information sources for many. This is despite having completely up-to-date, free, and accurate hiking guides like Abby Wilson’s “West Kootenay Hiking”.
The Purcells were first written about in 1978, in “Exploring the Purcell Wilderness” by Anne Edwards, Patrick Morrow, and Arthur Twomey. Janice Strong continued on with “Mountain Footsteps – Hikes in the East Kootenay of Southeastern British Columbia”. My last copy is its third 2011 edition but has probably been updated since. It covers some of the hikes on the west side of the Purcells.
None of these books discuss anything past the end of the trail. Little is mentioned of the mountains, whether walk-ups, scrambles, or technical climbs. They also don’t include the many mountains we climb without any trail access.
Hiking & Climbing Guides
The American Alpine Club published A Climbers Guide to the Interior Ranges of British Columbia covering the Bugaboos, Cariboo, Monashee, Purcell, and Selkirk mountains since 1937. Earl Whipple was the principle editor of these guides since 1971 and new editions were produced in 1975,1977, 1982,1987, and 1992. In 1975, the guidebook was divided into two volumes: North and South. The title was changed from Interior Ranges to Columbia Mountains. As of 1992, it was published in three volumes: North, West & South, and East. I have only seen the second volume and I doubt the others ever existed. It covers the entire Cariboos, Monashees, and southern Selkirks.
Climbing Guide: The Columbia Mountains of Canada: West & South by Earl Whipple, Roger Laurilla, and William Putnam. Published by the American Alpine Club, the seventh and last edition came out in 1992. A new edition was to be published but conflicts arose between the ACC and Mr. Whipple and future editions will probably never see the light of day.
David Jones of Revelstoke has written great climbing guides to the north Selkirks.
The only information published on the south Purcell Mountains is in Climbers Guide to the Interior Ranges of British Columbia – South by Robert Krnszyna and William L Putnam and that formed the backbone of the Southern Purcells.
Other guides used were: (I would like to thank them for their great milages)
Exploring the Purcell Wilderness by Anne Edwards, Patrick Monroe, and Arthur Twomey
Hiking the West Kootenay by John Carter
Where Locals Hike & Don’t Waste Your Time in the West Kootenay by Kathy & Craig Copeland.
Hiking in the Okanagan and the Southern Monashees by Paul S. Phillips
Hiking Trails enjoyed by The Vernon Outdoors Club
Mountain Footsteps – Hikes in the East Kootenay of Southeastern British Columbia by Janice Strong
The Kootenay Mountaineering Club started in 1964 and has been the focus of most climbing and off-trail hiking in the West Kootenay. They published an annual journal, the Kootenay Karabiner until 2000 and many local climbs were described. Since 1974, the club has also produced a Newsletter, and that has been the only publication of the club since 2000. Over the years, virtually every mountain has been climbed by club members and described in either of these. Reporting has been of variable quality but some members have made significant contributions to writing about our mountains. Visit at www.kootenaymountaineeringclub.ca. where all volumes of the Karabiner and the Kootenay Mountaineer since their origin are available. Their value is greatly increased with an index which I have but is not available for public use.
Kim Kratky climbed almost every mountain in the West Kootenay. His one goal was to climb every one in the Kokanee Range, a more difficult task than one might think. Several of these are remote and protected by the famous West Kootenay brush. He reportedly climbed over 500 mountains in his life. He was an English professor at Selkirk College and, more importantly, he wrote elegant descriptions of every climb he ever did. He should be the one writing this book, but unfortunately, Kim died prematurely before any of his notes were collated. They formed the backbone of all the KMC publications but not all of his routes were published. Kim coauthored Earl Whipple’s digital guidebooks.
In 2017, Earl Whipple made his guidebooks available digitally. http://kootenaymountaineeringclub.ca/mountain-info/guidebooks.html.
I will be forever indebted to Mr. Whipple. Earl has been active in the Columbia Mountains all his life and is a member of the Kootenay Mountaineering Club. He has made them available for free and can be linked through the club website.
Backroad Mapbook Volume IV, the Kootenays. This outdoor recreation guide provides info on trails and maps of all the roads.
The Canadian Alpine Journal, the journal of the Alpine Club of Canada has had some articles on the West Kootenay. The Canadian climbing magazine “Gripped” likewise includes some. With the advent of the Internet, many online forums like bivouac.com and trails.com are additional sources.
West Kootenay Hiking. This website was founded by Abby Wilson and has become the go-to source of information on hiking in the West Kootenay. She has good maps, a wealth of photos, accurate trail information, and is avidly adding new hikes constantly.
What is different about this e-guide:
1. I hope to include hikes with and without trails and climbs together.
2. I want to include every trail, hike, and climb, even ones that are not particularly popular or possibly even used anymore.
3. Reports will be concise with no extra words and only the information necessary to do the hike or climb.
4. The trip reports are formatted the same, have clear driving instructions, and should all have a map. I have organized the trips by range and road access. This should be easy for locals but will be difficult to understand for others.
5. I have included articles extracted from the KMC Newsletter and Karabiner and added them to trail and mountain reports. The addition and author is designated by a superscript capital letter.
One disappointment is that the entire e-book will be on my website and thus not as accessible as it could be. It would be much better and more accessible to have its own website or to be on the Kootenay Mountaineering Club website. The hope is that this online book, when finished, will include every mountain and trail in the West Kootenay. Hopefully, it will become open source so that anyone can write trip reports and edit past reports. Until that happens, simply copy and paste what I have written, make additions and suggestions, and email them to me. A specific format is recommended and templates are available. All input is appreciated. Contact me at rvperrier@gmail.com.