Iago Peak is a seldom-hiked peak in the Coquihalla Summit area.   We have twice snowshoed to the top and back and we enjoyed the route and the views from the top.    We have also followed the same trail to climb to the top of Zupjok Peak.   This last outing was our first time hiking the route and we found it quite difficult from Ottomite Hill to the summit ridge.   The rest of the hike continues to be a nice route.

The first section is an old double track starting at the west end of the Zopkios Ridge Rest Area.   It passes an avalanche stanchion and continues up to the top of Ottomite Hill.

A large cairn marks where we leave the double track to follow a single track through marshy meadows on the way to Zupjok Mountain.   This is much better defined and is well-flagged now.   At the west end of the forest traverse, we spotted flagging tape that showed the winter route over to Iago.  All of the flags were high on trees since they were set when the snows were deep, covering all of the vegetation below.   There was no evidence of a trail and we had to bushwhack our way through heavy vegetation.   We could only progress at 1 km/hour through this part of the route.

The vegetation opened up as we climbed up the ridge on Iago.

On the summit ridge, subalpine krummholz and alpine meadows made for a welcome break from the bushwhacking traverse below.

The top of Iago has open views in every direction.   To the west is the rugged Anderson River peaks.

To the north are Coquihalla Summit Peaks including Vicuna and Guanaco.   We have done Guanaco Peak twice.

To the east is Zopkios Ridge and Yak Peak.   We have also hiked Yak Peak a few times.

We returned by the same route we went up, a return route of 12.3 km, taking about 6 hours.   Some of us don’t mind bushwhacking to get to a special spot, but others avoid going through the “misery bush” so only go to Iago in the summer if you are part of the former group.

More Information:

• Iago Peak Views (video)
• Iago Summit (winter)
• Iago Peak (snowshoe)
• Iago Peak Wildflowers