Elevation Gain: 5386m
Distance: 74km
Total Time: 3.5 days
Date: April 24th – 27th, 2026
stats are for all 3.5 days of our traverse
Mount Alecto is far from the tallest thing on the Lillooet icefield, but its oddly isolated from its neighbors and thus affords some unique views of the area. It also happens to be right off the beaten path for anyone making a traverse through the Lillooet icefield. Alecto was slated to be our final summit of day 2 on our 4 day traverse. We had just reached the bottom of Mount Tisiphone after reaching the top. Camp was packed up and it was time to lose some elevation down to the four way stop.
I had the advantage of being on skis and descended ahead of the pack with one or two pauses in the more heavily crevassed sections to stay in sight. After that I coasted all the way across the four way stop and planted myself on a dry granite boulder on the other side. I promptly ditched my boots and stretched out to bask in the sun. About 30 minutes later Alex, Steven and Seb caught up and I joined them on the long plod up to the top of the Ring Glacier.
The ascent went on for ages and the stifling sun didn’t help, but by the afternoon we had hauled ourselves up to the top. Alecto looked deceivingly close and we ditched our packs to make a go for it. The snowshoers booted straight up the slope, while I took a lower angle arm up to the ridge. We met up at the top and Seb marched ahead to tackle the summit block.
He made it half way up and found mushy snow on slab and decided to bail. The alternative was a long detour around to the east ridge. Unfortunately I had ditched my skis lower down and had return to them while the rest of the group traversed over. By some luck though, Steven found a ramp closer to the summit block that obviated the need to traverse all the way down the ridge.
We clamored up the isothermal snow and then took a few thing snow fingers up through the rocks to gain the summit. It was steeper and more exposed than expected, but only a short section of difficulties. We left the summit only a short while after reaching it and the down climb required some focus. Once were back at the shoes and skis, we parted ways and I had a few crusty turns back down to our bags.
Camp was setup right where we ditched our bags and I promptly passed out after sunset. I briefly woke up to a moonlit glacier and then returned to a peaceful slumber. The next morning it was time to make a big traverse over to Mount Fulgora.