Mount Nestor

"Winter ascend ,crossing the Spray Lake. Avalanche area, check conditions. Very tough walking on the snow, rocks terrain. No snowshoes, trying avoid deep snow and cornices. Moderate scramble in snow conditions, very strong and cold wind. Last hours using head lump. Solo" — hiker64 • Feb 15, 2026

"Mount Nestor East Ridge (5.5 PD+). A great route, as good as Mount Bell or Assiniboine, but nobody does it! Crux is slabby and a bit runout, mentally intimidating in mountaineering boots, but less hard than it appears. The approach drainage was sketchy, I would recommend using the next drainage to the south and then traverse easy meadows to the start of the east ridge" — yuri • Sep 13, 2025

"Family scramble on Labour Day. Got carried away by a nice trail and ride, that missed the turn and went all the way to a dam. Also, original parking is closed, so extra 3-3.5km one way from Old Goat Glacier Parking." — alexp • Sep 1, 2025

"A fairly easy 11.4 km bike ride from the gate at the old goat glacier parking lot to the Mount Nestor trail. Then a 4km slog up 1300m to a short hands-on section to gain the summit. " — Randy • Aug 27, 2025

"Second time's a charm! I had annoyingly failed due to an extremely sketchy storm at the false summit back in 2018, it was nice to return and check it off as a proper summit. Not much to it other than an enjoyable bike ride to start/finish with, a long plod up an open gully, and then brief moderate scrambling at the top. Of note the gate was closed at the Old Goat parking lot so we had to bike from there which added an extra 6km RT. I believe some folks have been lucky and parked further along at the bend. Beautiful views from up high. 32km (24 of those km's on bikes) 1550m gain in 7 hours. " — hollywilliams • Jun 19, 2025

"Loved it, a nice remote outing with mostly pleasant travel aside for some slightly annoying bush lower down, thankfully short lived. Views are excellent for most of the day. The bike ride is pleasant and can be done on just about any bike. The summit offers some short but interesting scrambling. Tried to do this twice on skis but couldn't line up conditions. Worth doing in summer anyway! Will return some day to ski it if I can finally nail the timing. A kananskis classic, 5 stars from me. 33km 1550m gain in just over 7 hours. " — jakefinnan • Jun 19, 2025

"Feli, Mike and I drove to Spray Lakes with the truck loaded up with mountain bikes. We had a bit of a headwind on the way in, but it all went well and we hid our bikes by the trail. The hike/slog up was mostly uneventful, except for an ornery bighorn ram. We gave it a very wide berth, walking well around the three rams hanging out, but it kept approaching us. Mike and I took out our bear spray (safety too!) and we all stood together behind a tree clacking our poles together and against the wood. We yelled. Nothing! It would get a little bit closer, then stand there. Eventually, it got bored or figured we were safe and moseyed off. We slogged up and while the day started at 15C, it was 35 at the truck when we got back. We sure baked on the rocks. The ride out was quick with the tailwind and it didn't seem too much uphill. Another good day despite smoke and heat." — leigh-annewebster • Aug 10, 2018

"After work CSMC trip. 6 hrs return. We were in the snow and rain and clouds and so ended up going up the south ridge all the way. Closer to difficult scrambling. Below 0 and windy with snow and ice on summit." — alexjoseph • Sep 7, 2016