Can't reach High Hrothgar because a sabercat is in my way. How can I evade or handle that?

On my way to High Hrothgar (I'm a level 11 thief mostly aimed at sneaking and archery) I meet a sabertooth cat on the 7000 steps. There is no way to go around it and it kills me in 2 blows.

I tried doing large damage to it with shouts, magic and everything else, but I can't kill him. I even lost my housecarl, it can't fight it.

I was wondering if I could find a potion of invisibility somewhere. Else I'll have to wait for the Ethereal shout and run like hell in hope he'll let me pass.

How would you bypass this "problem"?

I would buy a horse and run past it. They only cost 1000 gold which shouldn't take too long to build up as you work on other quests.

Alternatively you could try to find a rock or some object along the path that you can jump onto where the sabrecat can't reach you and try to shoot it with arrows from there.

You can Shout him off the cliff with your "Unrelenting Voice" shout. "Become Ethereal" wont work,since you can only stay untouched for a while.

If you are a wood elf,you can use your racial to charm him so you dont have to fight him.

Invisibility potions can also help. You can force him to fight other near mobs, just by running near them with the cat pursuiting you.

Or, you can go to Whiterun, enter the "Drunk Huntsman" and pay 500 Gold for an Archer Household, let her tanking the cat while you shoot decent arrows (like steel, or dwarven since you are level 11) with a poisoned / enchanted bow (any fire enchant will do)

Kyne's Peace can be obtained literally 30 feet from Ivarstead. It's like they're saying "here there be monsters" and giving you a monster pacifier. But then there's the troll...

I was running into the same problem, my solution was to hire a mercenary. She was able to keep aggro long enough for me to do my dirty work, also shouting the cat off of the cliff worked well.

If none of the other suggestions work, try a Calm/Fear spell. You might not be able to cast a strong enough version, so look into finding a scroll. The court wizard in Dragonsreach tends to have a few for sale.