The Whaleback Treck a.k.a The 'Cooler' Treck, Yoho National Park

I got recommended this treck from a hitchhiker I picked up. I found it more beautiful than the more popular Jasper and Banff National Parks. The park contains some of the highest peaks in Canada, it has 28 peaks over 3000m.



This is our final camp spot. We originally intended to camp at the site by the parking area, so we brought loads of gear and loaded it onto a handy cart provided by Parks Canada. When we got to the first site it felt too safe and not proper wilderness, so we decided to head to the next camp spot about 4km away. We originally intended to take the cart to the next spot, after 100m we got told by a friendly set of hikers it would be impossible, so we re-hashed our plans. As we were unloading the cart with all essentials and ready to take the cart back to the car park, a set of annoying hikers started giving us shit. Even though I told them we were changing plans they carried on rabbiting on, the most annoying 'perfect' people ever! Because we were initially intending to stay at this easily accessible site we went equipped with luxury items, most had to be left, but some remained, like our steaks and beers. The food was a little smelly, so we decided to keep it in the cooler and not transfer to our packs due to beers. So off we head with this massive cooler on our treck. We finally ended up at a camp spot



The camp spot was amazing, it was by an awesome little stream, the night was cloudless and you could see the stars and galaxies. Tried to stay up late drinking beer but then we got spooked by noises in the forest so headed to the tent. Pretty spooky when you can't see shit, I kept having visions of a beer bounding out of the darkness!



OK.....the cooler was a big pain, on the first section where the track was wide it was fairly easy because we could carry one handle each. Then when the track got steep and narrow it had to be carried solo. I tried to carry it on my back but it was too heavy and I felt like a mule. The treck wasn't the longest I have done but definitely the hardest just because of the damn cooler!



This is twin falls, we hiked to the top of it along a switchback trail, the elevation gain was approximately to the base of the falls is approximately 300m from the parking lot.



Lunch spot at the top of twin falls.



This was just by twin falls, from here we thought we had no more climbing but had about another 70m elevation to get past.



This is the absolute highest spot on the Whaleback Trail, an elevation of 2633m, the elevation gain from the base of twin falls was 350m. This photograph doesn't do the views justice. It was amazing, you could see nearly 360 degrees and too many mountains to count. There were no people from twin falls to the top of Whaleback mountain, which is weird as it was the best section.



The infamous cooler.