Hello all. I am planning an epic 7-8 day backpacking trip thru some of Banff's more remote corners this coming summer. One of the mountains en-route will be Snort Peak at the head of Roaring Creek. Looking at Google maps and studying the topo, it looks like it shouldn't be that tricky to get up it, from it's North-West rigde, however it's very tricky to verify this without actually seeing it live. Does anyone have experience in this region? Has anyone heard of Snort Peak being summited? No information shows up when researching online. Perhaps it hasn't been summited? Any clues help! Thanks !

Took some poking around but here is what I found. "Snort" has been climbed, multiple times. Main confusion is in the naming -- "Mt. Goodiar", "Roaring Ridge Summit" and "Snort". This is the document by Parks Canada Centennial Commemorative Climbing Camp in 1985:


https://parkwardenalumni.com/wp/wp-c...-CAMP-copy.pdf



They ventured up north fork of McConnell creek, then set up "Two Lake camp" & climbed and named several peaks in upper valley -- including "Goodiar" (or Snort):



Note "short rope over tottering piles of shale".



This is probably not the direction you have in mind though - but it would be more than worth exploring. Approach to the area can be either via Skoki - Red Deer River or from Ya Ha Tinda.
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Second resource I found is bivouac:
https://bivouac.com/TripPg.asp?TripId=5751


This is probably closer to what you have in mind, and --at least partially-- coincides with that "Circumventing the Drummond Glacier" trip you did. Rick difficulty assessment for entire trip is "Occasional difficult scrambling on loose rock and snow. Regretted not having a rope numerous times"


Finally, interesting video to watch:


This trip was probably inspired by Parks Canada Centennial" as camp was also set by "Two Lake Camp" following by ascent of several peaks in the area (but not "Snort")


Hope this helps. By all means if you go do post a report - I'd be very curious to see how it panned out. Cheers

Bit more, as this really peaked my interest as "Snort" is high but appears to be hikers peak & in totally remote environments of eastern BNP

Looking north from Red Deer River area:



"TLC" lower right is Two Lakes Camp used by Park Wardens when they ascended Godiar (or Snort), which was First Recorded Ascent of the peak. Their line is in black, labeled "WL" & you can see 5th lake in upper valley they refer to as well as steep shale slopes. "CCL" line in yellow is likely the easiest line, utilizing west branch of McConnell Creek. Downside -- likely no trail & bushwhack. Upside: Bleat peak - appears simple ridgewalk. "RC" is Roaring Creek on the other side, and "EBL" line in pale red to the left is likely line Eric the Backpacker took from McConnell Peak traversing around Cataract Peak on his way to Three Brothers Lake


Looking south from Roaring Creek area:



Same labels as above, but now one can appreciate how beautiful and easy yellow line from west McConnell creek appears. Also why ascent from the north (upper Roaring Creek area) would not be feasible


I'd be quite interested in yellow line. Prob. bivi 2 nites somewhere in upper reaches of west McConnell creek and have full day with light pack to explore & bag Bleat and Snort

Wow Cheers buddy, you're quite the detective! That's a trove of useful information.
What surprised me the most was probably the fact that the party that posted on Bivuac used the same pass I did last summer to access Three Brothers Lake. It was sketchy to the point that I thought nobody else would be so foolish as to go up there! Granted, there wasn't any snow when I went.
Also great read in regards to Snort. I'd never considered that it could have changed names.
I know you're a sucker for maps (like me), so I'll link you a map on Google Earth with my tentative route when I get home on Sunday.
Thanks for digging this up, pieces of information on some of these areas are really few and far between !

What I am not sure is how "Goodiar" became "Snort". It is labelled Snort on Google Maps, but Google has been known to be wrong on occasion. But there are references elsewhere; I'd expect name coined by Park Wardens who made First (Recorded) Ascent to stick. Maybe someone else can shine a bit more light on this?

Here is 1 more interesting image, taken from Cataract peak (taken from here)

RC: Roaring Creek, MCC: McConnell Creek, MCP: McConnell Peak


That ridge from Bleat to Snort, that looks so innocent on Google Maps, looks bit more serious here



Which is why I often point it is NOT too reliable to plan such things based on Google only.


Looking forward to your map & what you are planning to get yourself into. This is fantastic area very few ever venture into

https://earth.google.com/earth/rpc/c...7D&usp=sharing

Have a peek and see what ya think!

I can see the area, but not route map?

Man, that's odd. It seems to work when I link it to people on messenger. Ill post it again and hopefully itll work


https://earth.google.com/earth/rpc/c...7D&usp=sharing

no, still the same.
Can you just post regular map, it would be much easier and faster. Just take a screenshot. I am curious what you are up to.

I'm wondering if "Goodiar Peak" should actually be Goodair Peak. Percy Goodair was a Tonquin Valley warden killed by a grizzly in 1928. The wardens named peaks after wardens who had died in service and Goodair is mentioned in the second paragraph of their article. But there already is a Goodair Peak in the Tonquin group. The warden article says they named the peak Goodiar which looks to be a typo to me. Perhaps in retrospect, finding there already was a Goodair Peak is how the Snort name came to be.

Yes, and whole area was unofficially referred to as "Warden Range". According to Parks Warden Alumni newsletter from Fall 2020 (scroll to top of page 8):



Only piece of info I can't find is who actually named it "Snort" -- I personally find name quite ugly. "Roaring Ridge Summit" has probably the nicest ring to it.

The only map I have of it is on Google maps. Not sure how much good a screenshot will do, but I guess you can kinda get the gist! Start/End point at Fish Creek parking lot.

Attached Thumbnails

 

That is very ambitious trip. I don't know how will Smoky col to Roaring drainage be. (btw both Howl and Below, at top of valley you will hike up towards Smoky, are walk-ups). Then ascent of Snort from Roaring side is "?". I guess some of this you will decide once you are there in person.

My guess is you will need at least a week for all this. What a fantastic loop!

Yeah, Smoky -> Roaring is the big question mark of the trip. Looking at various topo maps, Google Earth, and scouring images from other trip reports, I'm fairly certain that the pass goes. As to eventual summits along the way, those will have to played by ear! 7-8, maybe 9 days, depending on how long of days.

Yes, that's is usually the case when main beta are various online maps & not much more.


But I would plan on camping in upper valley before crossing Smoky --> Roaring col. There is water and meadows. Howl and Below are walkups from there, as seen on that YouTube video I linked up on top. It is also quite remote & there are bears