01

Hector South | 2012-05-06

Hector South
  • Location: Banff National Park (Icefields Parkway)
  • Activity: Scrambling
  • Height: 2,970 m (9,745 ft)
  • Elevation Gain: 1,120 m (3,675 ft)
  • Distance: 9.5 km / Round Trip (5.9 mi)
  • Avg Steepness: 13.3°
  • Estimated Time: 6.5-9 hrs
  • Technicality: Advanced (Intermediate in dry condition)
  • Fitness Level: Hard

I saw a trip report from Nugara's website and decided to do this but I didn't realize he also covered this peak on the snowshoeing book as well. However his route and my route is different. He took west ridge approach while I took south ridge route.

Where is Parking Spot?:
For this one you have to park side of road. I forgot to set meter but according to my GPS's map it should be about 12km from HWY 1 & 93 junction.

South Ridge:
Approach was pretty straight forward as well as the first half of the ridge up until a big block which I could see from bottom (page 6, 7). Unfortunately I couldn't see the other end of the block when I looked at it from bottom or when I was right in front of it, so I wasn't sure if the other side is cliff or if it levels out. So I had 2 options, either go over it or go around. Both options in my mind, I decided to try going around first. If it's dry condition this would not be a problem, but with snow on the slope, I had to take little bit of risk dipping my foot traversing a snow slope for 20 m (page 16), then I was able to go around and get back to on top of the ridge again.

After the block I had one more obstacle to overcome but this one was safer. There was a slight dip between the block and the summit. Going down was no problem, but going up, the snow drift was way too steep to climb up, but lucky I could use dry rock to scramble up. It was somewhat easy/moderate scramble. You can see it on page 11. The rest of way was hiking.

Descent:
I took the same way back.

02

Hector South | 2012-05-06

Looking at the ridge. You can see the block too. I actually thought about going west ridge route but didn't like the rocky part I saw.

03

Hector South | 2012-05-06

My route is the ridge on the right.

04

Hector South | 2012-05-06

Lake Louise area.

05

Hector South | 2012-05-06

At the col. This ridge can be extended to south ridge or south east ridge.

06

Hector South | 2012-05-06

Coming up on the block.

07

Hector South | 2012-05-06

This is where I was thinking which way I should go. As you can see you can get up the ridge but I wasn't sure what then.

08

Hector South | 2012-05-06

Mount Balfour.

09

Hector South | 2012-05-06

Big cornices.

10

Hector South | 2012-05-06

Looking back the block. It does look that the block levels out from this angle.

11

Hector South | 2012-05-06

The summit is right there. But before there is a little dip. Mouseover for close up.

12

Hector South | 2012-05-06

Crazy carpet?

13

Hector South | 2012-05-06

Picture cannot tell. Mount Hector looked so big from here.

14

Hector South | 2012-05-06

Hector Lake and the highway side.

15

Hector South | 2012-05-06

I loved the view so one more shear shot.

16

Hector South | 2012-05-06

My footprints where I traversed.

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