South Hector Peak

September 23rd 2022

Into the valley. At the bottom was a large avalanche creek. tried to go down and then got out and went through the trees the way we came up

Sept 23rd 2023

Hector Peak South is as it name implies is a sub Peak of the main Hector glaciated peak. Measuring from the turn off at Lake Louise from Hwy 1 at Hwy 93 north it is 12 km and just 120 meters further to the watercourse valley.

Follow the route up on the GPS and not the route down. Fight through the under brush until reaching an old road. Walk right and find a nicer place to forge upward. The tree spacing and bush was way better on our route up. Continue until just about out of the trees and go left into the valley and climb up to the col. At the col go left ,north to another col. At this point on the left you may be able to see the summit we could not due to low cloud. There is some nice coloured rocks like big blocks. This is the crux but no exposure and easy climbing. Continue on up the ridge. On the decent due to the low cloud and the thought that it would be better not to down climb through the rocks we chose a scree gully down into the valley below. It sure looked like a short cut but it turned out to be the same time and distance. The picture above shows Lee walking down the valley to the watershed valley. Do not bother trying to walk out down the watershed it is covered in avalanche debris. Go back to the way up. My track down is harder than the way up. To close to the watershed.

Overall I would like to return some day when the sun is out. The views would be great down the Molar Creek area and of the main Peak of Hector.

Coming to the end of the bush whacking with one of the tops we would climb

General view of the way forward

Was really steep to get here and still along way to go to the left
I think this may be the south ridge of Hector a back country ski area
Past the snow and to the Col and the left up that knoll to the block rocks
Left is the ridge to the top. Hidden in cloud
Big blocks to climb up weather cold and cloudy
Looking into the Molar area
Need to get to the top of this block like cliff
Nearly there
Shame about the visibility
Found the summit no views
We came up through that thick cloud
Bottom left is the way out
At this point we are thinking we could bale down a scree shoot and miss the climb down the blocks
So we did we went down here. Steeper than it looks but fast
Looks like a fast route out but it took the same time
Looking back at the decent route
Down to the valley and go left
Centre shoot we came down

https://www.willski.ca/trailheads/SouthHector.gpx

https://www.willski.ca/kml/SouthHector.kml