Little Hector

Day 348 (328) (2462) 860 284 147 – Little Hector

Written from a perspective of a person going through rehabilitation after knee surgery.

I have done a lot since December 21 and have been hiking since April. The hikes were easy; perhaps I could call the "biggest" hike this year, Mt. Louie, a moderate one, as it was wet and slippery. Since then, I have been excited about extending the climbing difficulty level. Little Hector was going to be somewhat different. 

My sleep was good. I "lost" the game, in which we decided who would sleep in shared accommodation and not in the private room Roman booked. It is always almost scary (Am I a snowflake?) to sleep in shared rooms with bunk beds, as I am afraid there would be a person or many of them who snore. And I cannot handle snoring. But I got a better deal 😊, as I shared the big room for twelve people with only 3 others.

Comfortable accommodation

Only one person, Hannes, a young Austrian, slept on "my side" of the room. The other guys, Roman, Felix, Piotr, and Andrzej, got pretty much squeezed into their private room ("squeezed" is the state I think people who stay in such a small room experience.)

 Even better, nobody snored in my room, so I got a good night of sleep, even though I had to get up at 6 (yes, that is early for me!) I kept a window open and had a white noise all night: Mosquito Creek is some 10 meters from the cabin. It was almost like sleeping with live meditative music. 

 

It was 5 C in the morning, and it was so fresh and crisp. It was a mother of all bluebird days.

Nice and cool in the morning

We were quickly at the trailhead and started the ascend at 7:16.

I did a big Hector in 2014, so I remembered the trail a bit. In 2014 I did the first third, including the falls crux, in the dark, so I didn't recognize much of the terrain today.

The team is ready!

I knew topography would change when approaching the falls - it became steeper and steeper.

We separated after the first fall. I went to the right; Felix followed me. 

Getting steeper

I didn't want to scramble through the rocks as I did eight years ago in the dark. I knew that the other path was more straightforward (at least for me.) Others went straight up, and Felix and I saw them only after passing the second fall and climbing some 120 vertical meters. By this time, we were not "puffing" yet, as the sun was still behind the mountain, and we were still fresh.

After the second falls

We were nicely advancing, and when the sun rays appeared, the colours became even more vivid. It was incredible scenery around us. I think that the light brought mosquitos too.

The sun arrived

We took a short break to apply sunscreen and other protective gadgets. And we had to get some food into our bodies.

 

I felt good. I didn't think much about the knee. I didn't feel knee pain, but I was careful and monitored every step. I was already preparing for the comedown, as I knew the descent would be more complicated in the second half of the climb. I knew I would be tired by then, and my knee would complain.

 

Once in the valley between Andromache and Hector, we followed the trail on the left-hand side. This trail leads to the Hector pass, where climbers can go left to Mt. Andromache and right, to Hector and Little Hector.

Taking a break

We didn't go all the way to the pass. We turned right earlier. We even saw two people almost at the top of the first long, steep section.

I didn't remember if I went that way in 2014. 

Before tackling the first intimidating slope, we regrouped and had food and water. Everyone was doing well. The team was in good spirits. Roman has been fantastic as always, adding humour to our "suffering."

Scree was not bad

I planned to be on the top in 5 hours, which meant we would ascend 250 metres every hour. We met that "requirement" during the first 500 vertical metres, which we did in two hours.

 

Once on the top of the first super steep slope, we finally saw our objective. The approach slope to the rock band was Uber steep, and the ridge was a relentless vertical continuation. Little Hector looked intimidating. The average steepness of the mountain is 14.8%, and only one mountain I did was steeper than Little Hector: Roche Perdrix.

Little Hector's upper slopes

We stopped at the flat area just before the upper slopes to take photos, but more, to enjoy the view. We, of course, took many pictures and played as children.

Playing

The views opened, and the colours were not from this world. The blue Hector Lake, Mt. Balfour, Bow River, and green sea of evergreen trees created a picture resembling some utopian planet.

 

Felix asked/commented on the next stage of our climb: "How are we going to climb that?" I must say that I had the same feeling and question. It looked intimidating, like a bouncer in front of a disco club.

Colours

I wasn't too concerned about going up; I was already thinking about going down. How is my knee going to behave? Will I be in pain? Will I be able to stay focused for hours descending? I didn't know the answers to these questions, but I still felt satisfaction, as I was now entering a higher level of effort, and my knee was going to be tested. I felt free. I only wished I didn't jump that far into the future.

 

As always, I documented the climb and combined photos and videos. I had my GoPro "working" hard and tried to be a disciplined video person. We cannot create anything with nothing. That is why I record hikes/climbs.

Steep again

It got colder and windier, so we put jackets on.

 

I was concerned about the snow in the rock band's weakness at the steepest part. I thought we might be able to climb the snow if it were not too hard. But even with softer snow, four out of six people probably wouldn't be able to climb it, as they didn't have ice axes.

I knew that they would have to climb the rock, either on the right or the left side.

 

It took a while until we finally reached, I would say, the second crux, the steepest part of the route. It was covered with snow and passable via the rock on the right, which was a nasty combination of slabs, loose gravel, and pebbles. The team pushed through it and showed resilience and competence. We unlogged quite a few rocks, which proved, again, that Rockies rock was mediocre.

 

I chose to climb the snow; I front kicked the steps and used my ice axe and one of my climbing poles as my other points of contact with the snow.

Almost as an ice

It was almost like climbing on a steep ice face. It was hard labour, but I did it satisfactorily, and such climbing assured me that I still knew how to use ice tools. The knee worked.

It's been a while since I did it.

 

We all stopped after this second crux, the rock band. I was puffing, and I was getting tired. We had an early lunch, which was needed at this point, as we all spent a lot of energy.

It was getting colder, so we wore more jackets and hats to protect us from the strong wind. There was no cloud in the sky, the sun was projecting heat, but it was still cold.

 

We all experienced reclusive sensations. The scenery felt as if it was and wasn't there simultaneously. It felt unsatisfying, either way: to capture it with all senses indefinitely or simply to ignore it. The colours, the wind, the sky, the sun, our own breathing, and puffing created a multidimensional image that is rarely experienced. It almost felt as if we saw a wolverine that posed for photographs.

Higher and higher

After this break, we continued up. There were still more than 300 vertical meters left. Typically, that is not much, but today, on Little Hector, the last 1000 vertical feet were hard. It was the scree that slowed us down and even more the steepness of the slope. And yes, we were tired.

 

But I knew we would reach the top. We slowed down, but we were moving up. The mountain's summit wasn't accommodating; we had to work to get there.

Higher

I was happy to be here and climbing such a rugged mountain. Not even a year ago, I couldn't get into the shower when Dr. Sommerfeldt had to reconstruct my knee. And now, I was using my new knee, my muscles were listening, and I was immersed in this beauty and had access to the world's best view.

 

Out of 7.4 billion people, there were six of us on this small piece of rock.

It took us 5:20 hrs to reach the summit of Mt. Little Hector. I was off for 20 minutes and thought we did an exemplary "job." 

Assistance

I was impressed by Piotr Z, who at first didn't appear a superman, but then he "smoked" the mountain. And what to say about Roman? At 76, I think he was the fittest person at that age to be so high in the mountains in North America on this day.

Andrzej was equally remarkable, as he said yesterday that he wasn't 100%, yet today, he scaled a Little Hector as the mountain was a piece of cake.

Felix did it beautifully, even though he doubted his chances when facing the big northeast face.

Gennady delivered as well, but that shouldn't be a surprise, as he is way younger than the rest of the group.

 

And for me, well, I struggled, puffed, had considerable doubts, questioned my ability, and was scared.

Mt. Hector

My knee was fine; I didn't feel any pain in the operated areas. The meniscus was solid; the ACL was rock solid; muscles were a bit weak. My hamstrings, especially the right one, were the weakest link. Dr. Sommerfeldt said I would lose ~5% of hamstring strength once he used it as a graft to build my new ACL.

And I felt it.

I also used my left leg more. So, I knew my left quad would be sore after the climb. And I still compensate(d).

I understand it, as my brain still protects the operated leg. The lizard brain was my friend today.

On the top

We spent 40 minutes on the summit. The views were the best in the world. A human being cannot experience better views, period. No technical gadget can do justice – a person has to experience it live.

 

I tried to be present during the summit stay. I wanted to use my sense of sight and absorb the 360 view. We were fairly high, and only a few mountain peaks were higher. The bluebird day allowed 100 km visibility so that I could see almost all the major giants of The Canadian Rockies.

 

The descent wasn't easy, especially at the falls, when we all were tired. I was extremely fatigued, and applied all precautions, to safely get down.

 

In the end, I told myself to "save" a personal reminder that patience pays off.