I confess that I've never met a yak in person, except perhaps in a zoo. Someday maybe I will see one in Nepal. However, there is a fine range of granitic peaks about 200 km ENE of Vancouver, one of which is named Yak Peak. It is part of the Anderson River Peaks, which are about as far north in the Cascade Mountains as you can get. On the watershed east of the Fraser River - the Anderson River Peaks get a lot of winter snow, although they're not quite glaciated, but it gets drier as you go east.

I mention all this because the area provides some very fine alpine rock climbing, on domes and spires, and because some of the peaks are right beside the main Vancouver - Calgary highway, the Coquihalla (OK, Vancouver - Bugaboos, or Vancouver - Banff if you have to go to Alberta). And not much more than two hours from Vancouver. The area is somewhat reminiscent of Tuolumne, though more forested and with damper weather in summer. Those who drive by, and wonder whether there's any climbing on those intriguing rocks, need wonder no longer.

The Coquihalla Highway - Highway 5 - goes from Vancouver to Hope to Kamloops, and so on. (Thus the Anderson River Group is Beyond Hope.) It was originally the route of the Kettle Valley railroad, through southern B.C., and sidings on the railway had Shakespearean names, such as Othello. Some of those names still appear on turnoffs and tunnels. The highway crosses a 1,250 m pass, and the ten km southwest of the pass feature many large slide paths, with avalanche control quite similar to Roger's Pass. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Highway_5, if you want more.

Anyway, the Anderson River Peaks are west of the highway, in the area of Coquihalla Pass. A knot of domes, ridges, and the headwaters of various rivers and creeks. The biggest peaks are at the west end of the group, about 15 km west of the highway - they're reached from the other side, from the Fraser River. Here they are:
L - R, Steinbok, Ibex and Chamois Peak. Steinbok is about 2,000 m, and the face on it is 600 or so m. All the peaks in the area are named after ungulates from around the world - Gemuza, Serna, Gemse, Reh, Bighorn, Guanaco, Vicuna, Alpaca, Llama, Zopkios, Zum, Zoa, Thar, Nak, and Yak.

Yak is directly above the highway - in fact, this picture was taken from the highway. (Somewhat foreshortened.)
There are several routes on the peak, which is 2,040 m. The face is perhaps 400 m, somewhat slabby, and a bit crumbly rock, especially in cracks. But not too bad, and certainly not choss. The route we did, in 2004, is called Yak-Check, in that it combines the better parts of Yak Crack and Reality Check. It's more or less in the centre of the face shown, below the summit.

It took us two attempts to do it - the area is prone to lightning storms, and we got rained off a pitch up, at about 9 AM. Which was somewhat disappointing. We returned a week or two later.

The first pitch leads to a large right-facing corner, but you don't climb it - you move out and left, and climb a crack on the outside face.

This is toward the top of the flake and its cracks, or maybe a pitch above. Fairly slabby, with steeper bits. Never harder than 5.9 or so, but some thought required.

A nice flake and lieback, maybe half way up.

Again, looking down as we get higher.

So far, we've been climbing Yak Crack, which shares two or three pitches in the middle. Now we're branching left onto Reality Check - you traverse some quite exciting flakes and such, and get to an arch formed by a big flake. You then either climb over the outside of the arch, or tunnel behind it for perhap 5 m, and either way end up on its top.

Looking down on the top of the arch/hole - I fitted into it, so it's no big deal.

The pitch above the arch - nice steep climbing for a few pitches, maybe even a bit of 5.10. Routefinding!

A reasonably airy place, about ten pitches up.

The last few pitches peter out into slabby stuff and then gullies, but you end up pretty much right on top.
It's an easy two hour descent, and there's a rest stop with ice cream and such near where one leaves the car, which is quite convenient.

So if you're passing through in the summer, another reason to stop.