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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
08 Aug 99 |
3:15 |
2:10 |
07 Aug 99 - Mt. Hector is one of the major peaks raising above 11,000 feet; however,
the summit is gained by glacier, thus making it an alpine climb. Since I was alone, I could
only do the scramble, so Little Hector is actually an outlier 750 feet below the main summit.
The Scrambles Book has a typo in the directions. The book says to go 20km north of the
TransCanada on highway 93. The Hector Creek, roadside turnout is actually only 10km north.
Hector Creek is not marked, but it's obvious which one it is. The trailhead is actually 2km
south of Mosquito Creek Campground. The trail starts along the right (south) side of the
creek and pretty much runs beside the creek.
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08 Aug 99 - About ten minutes into the trail, you come to a "T-intersection". Turn left
toward the creek and follow the trail up the creek. Keep going up the trail until you see a
large waterfall. When you see the waterfall, the trail crosses the creek and runs up through
the rockband on the left side. There were several trails up through the rockband. Just pick
one of them and get up there.
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08 Aug 99 - Eventually, you'll come out of the rockband into an upper gully. Here you have
two choices. There is a large ridge in front of you. You can try and go around it on the west
side (shown left), or you can go around the east side. The easiest would be the east side. Of
course, if the slabs are dry, you can try to run directly over it (as I did). If your aim is to go
directly over it, head toward the highpoint of the ridge. This is the way I went up, but coming
down, I went around this ridge on the east side and came through Hector Pass.
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08 Aug 99 - Once you are over the large ridge shown above, the rest is obvious. Just go straight
up. The scrambling is steep, but you'll think of the height gain you are getting with every step. This section
is very quick to come down. The peak here is hidden by cloud cover, but it's up there.
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08 Aug 99 - Along the way, you have fine views of Hector Lake and if the clouds weren't around,
you could see the Wapta Icefields.
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08 Aug 99 - Here is the view looking north along the icefields parkway. If you look
closely, you can see Bow Lake.
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