TENDERFOOT MOUNTAIN 2821m 9255′
At the heads of Tenderfoot and Rapid Creeks, with large glaciers.
The Kuskanax Creek FSR starts just norht of Nakusp (Nakusp Hot Springs). The main road is on the north side of the creek, but on the south side of Kuskanax Creek in the upper section where it turns east and reaches near the west side of Tenderfoot Mt about 26 beyong the hot springs. it was for high clearance four wheel drive vehicles.
1. West
Drive to the 23 km (14.3 mile) mark on the main branch of Poplar Creek (overgrown, 2015. Avoid the two south branches, use a high clearance four wheel drive vehicle.). Proceed 0.6 kilometre more and ford Poplar Creek (753-783).
Route: From camp at the ford, hike up the east side of the north fork of Poplar Creek (easy going). Ascend the west ridge, solving minor problems at a prominent notch (use snow on north side of notch, and then a shelf with good holds high up); 5.5 hours up. A cairn was found in 1995. Glacier (III,4,s).
FRA Kim Kratky, Peter Tchir, Thom Volpatti, June 25, 1995. There is an exposed traverse on shattered rock, Class 4.
2. South Ridge. The south ridge is easier, Class 3, and there is a little glacier travel. FA (PC: Sandra McGuinness). The west and south ridges can be reached from Kuskanax Creek.
UNNAMED 2820m
Situated 0.6 kilometre south-southeast of Tenderfoot Mountain.
1. North Ridge. Approach as for Tenderfoot Mountain. The north ridge is a scramble, and a cairn without a record was found on top. Glacier (III, 4,s). FRA Kim Kratky, Peter Tchir, Thom Volpatti, 25/6/1995.
TENDERFOOT – Poplar Creek Again
In October 1994 I visited the Poplar Creek area of the northern Goat Range for the first time, climbing Cascade Mtn. Since then, the region has become part of the new White Grizzly Park, and there is some doubt about continued motorized access. Fearing that easy access to alpine areas would soon disappear, I made three trips into the new park in 1995. My purpose here is to provide a record of those outings and give some indication of the area’s summer and fall recreation potential. All map references are to 82K/6 Poplar Creek
1:50,000 scale.
TENDERFOOT MTN. (9,350′)
On June 24th Peter Tchir, Thom Volpatti, and I left for a two-day trip to the Tenderfoot Mtn. area. Tenderfoot is a glaciated peak at the head of the N. terminal fork of Poplar Creek; it was attractive to us because of its remoteness and the possibility that it might have been unclimbed.
The first day, we drove 140 km. from Nelson to the Poplar Creek turnoff, 26 km. N. of Meadow Creek, and continued a further 23.6 km. on the main haul road (almost all 2WD) to a point where the road crosses to the N. bank via the remnants of a smashed bridge (753-783). We car camped on the S. bank and set out in the afternoon to reconnoitre our route.
After fording the creek, we followed the road W. to a recent burn; here we raced up E. slopes to the summit of a minor 7,650′ peak (728-781) of absolutely no significance to inspect the southern approaches to Tenderfoot. It seemed that the E. bank of the N. terminal fork of Poplar Crk. would afford excellent going with very little bush, although we weren’t able to determine what part of the massif at the N. end was actually Tenderfoot.
Sunday, June 25th, we got an envigorating 6:00 am start by fording the groin-deep creek. After walking on the road for 5-10 min., we turned off before crossing the N. fork and headed up its E. bank, traversing boulder fields, light timber, and snow patches (a most satisfactory route) until we reached alps below the headwall (749-813). We then ascended heather, snow tongues, and light bush NE to Tenderfoot’s SW glacier, which is barely a “real” glacier. At this point, mist helpfully shrouded the peaks, so we blundered across the snow to a 9,100′ col where we found a heli-ski radio beacon (764-828). From this point I spotted through the mist a cairned peak to the S. and persuaded the others it might be Tenderfoot.
We reached this 9,250′ peak (764-825) via snow and easy broken rock at 11:00 and found no record in the cairn. Within minutes the skies cleared and we were able to confirm that a higher peak to the N. was the real Tenderfoot. We then made a northwesterly descent across the SW glacier to gain Tenderfoot’s W. ridge at about 8,700′. This gave very easy going to the summit except for one notch; we turned the lower part of this on snow to the N. and the upper bit by negotiating a slightly awkward shelf with good handholds high up (no rope needed on ascent or descent). The rest was wide heather ramps and easy broken rock leading us to the summit at noon. Here, we found another cairn with no record; there was some thought that these markers could have been built by heli-skiers.
As the weather continued to improve, we spent over an hour on the summit savouring views of the Gold Range,the Pinnacles, and the long SW ridge leading from our summit to Spyglass Mtn. We returned to camp via our ascent route in 3 hours 40 min. Call it an 11-hour day for both peaks, 10 hours for just Tenderfoot.
TENDERFOOT MTN. W ridge (III,4,s/g) 9,350′ Lardeau Range. From car camp on S. bank of Poplar Creek, approach along E. bank of N. terminal fork. Ascend alps and glacier to gain W. ridge. Follow the ridge to the summit, solving minor problems at a prominent notch. 5 1/2 hours up.
