Mt. Hector 3394m (Ski Mountaineering)



Boot packing up a steep scree section.



Date: April 12th, 2011

Total time: 10h 10min

Approach time: 8h (asc. 1591m)

Descent time: 2h10min

I had a a great time showing Erin, Talli, Hannes and Morten to the top of Mt. Hector today. We started skiing up the creek at 0720h (temp. -11C). We then boot packed up some old avalanche debris and kept going up the gully to where it opens up into the alpine.

We reached the toe of the glacier around 1100h and roped up.
The bottom and lower angled section of the glacier only showed a few crevasses partially open. When the glacier steepened it didn’t show any signs of crevasses and the snow was quite firm. It was even too firm in some sections. One of the guys had trouble getting a proper edge into the snow while we traversed upwards. We reached the summit (3394m) after 8hrs (temp. -7C). We left our skis behind and climbed the last 50m to the top. I chose to leave my crampons behind but found the mountaineering axe useful since the snow was quite consolidated.

We had a blue bird sky almost the whole time except for a big cloud that rolled through for the top half of the ski down. As we had seen on the way up, the snow was quite crusty on the top section of the glacier. It definitely beat having to walk down though! What made this tour even better was the 1600m descent all the way to the vehicle. There isn’t a need to take your skis off or go back into touring mode.



View of Mt. Hector from the bottom of the glacier.

The snow was starting to see the effect of the intense sun 100m above the tree line when we skied down around 1500h. The snow was starting to melt and I wouldn’t have wanted to hang around the gully and old avalanche debris towards the bottom too long. The temperature at the parking lot was hovering around 0C.

 It was a good experience “guiding” everyone along the way. I kept a good sense of what was going on in the surroundings. Also making sure the pace was good for all assured everyone had a good time!



Lunch break... nearing the top.