Hornecker, Mount
Published by vdewit on June 2nd, 2009
Trip Report
On Saturday, May 30 2009, Wietse, JW, Naomi and Keith joined me on a 5 peak day in the Livingstone Range of the Alberta Rockies.
Wietse came up with the plan to hike / scramble the 5 peaks after reading trip reports from Bob Spirko. The 5 peaks (in the order we hiked them) were:
- Coffin Mountain
- Mount Livingstone
- Saddle Mountain
- Mount Hornecker
- Windy Peak
Mount Hornecker
Due to route choices, JW, Keith and I actually did about 75-100 extra meters of height gain on this small peak. Ironically we were trying to avoid bushwhacking and JW and I ended up in some very thick and thorny trees! We dipped all the way down to the col between Windy Peak and Hornecker, instead of cutting climber's left much earlier. Wietse and Naomi were smart and ended up saving themselves a lot of time and more importantly, effort. Oh well. We needed bushwhacking experience anyway...
Hornecker produced no issues, we contoured around to climber's right and Keith found an interesting cave. Wietse and Naomi went climber's left and they managed to get up too, so pick your line and go for it! Great views from the top, but the stay was again, short due to wind.
On the way back down there was a great opportunity to boot-ski but JW and I somehow missed out on another short cut and were on scree the whole way. We were all starting to feel the elevation gains and distance but everyone was in good spirits for the final ascent of the day, Windy Peak.
The group traverses over from Saddle Mountain to Mount Hornecker (flat topped mountain at center left).
JW tops out on a steeper hiking section.
Vern, on the summit of Mount Hornecker. Saddle Mountain in the background.
Summit Panorama on Mount Hornecker.
A great summit view looking towards Saddle Mountain.
