July 29th 2019

August 01, 2019

July 29th 2019

I woke up at ~4:45 to attempt to get a parking spot at Moraine Lake in order to climb Mt. Temple. After a quick McD's trip I made it to Moraine parking lot at ~6:00 and of course it was jam packed. I didn't want to waste any time waiting around for a parking spot so I boogied on down to the overflow lot and took the 6:30 bus back up. I was on the trail at 7:00.

The path up to Mt. Temple follows the Sentinel Pass trail until Sentinel Pass so first I headed in that direction. The first bit follows steep switchbacks through the forest that gain some easy elevation very quickly before depositing hikers in to the stunning (and very popular) Larch Valley. The valley is a very popular hike and I could easily see why, you have a stunning panoramic view of the nearby mountains and the sub alpine setting is always pleasant. Lots of little gophers add to the entertainment. In anticipation of better views from Mt. Temple however I hardly stopped to take a picture and continued towards Sentinel Pass. From the valley to the pass is a few switchbacks up a scree slope that was not too enjoyable however better than the initial forested portion. I gained the pass at 8:45 and stopped for a break. The pass was not yet in sunlight and was quite cold, I was glad I had brought my Columbia jacket and put it on and had some breakfast. I had made it to the pass in about an hour and half and was quite pleased with my time. The rest of the trek would not be so easy....

At the pass I didn't see anyone heading up to Mt. Temple. The bus driver had seen me with my ice axe and helmet and warned me of snow at the top of which I was already aware and prepared. Some hikers who were descending in to Paradise Valley surmised that the snow at the top probably scared people off. I found the trail and headed towards the goal, hoping to be at the top before noon. The initial portion out of Sentinel Pass is ~300-400m vertical gain of boulder walking that isn't too difficult but quite energy consuming. I admit being a little nervous since I was alone and no one else was on the mountain and the trail was difficult to follow with the cairn few and far between. Regardless I went slow and made sure I was confident in the direction as you could get in to trouble going too far off route.

I had read the crux of the route was a short section of relatively easy climbing but I had no idea where in to the ascent it was. I had seen a video so I kind of remembered what it looked like and how long it was but up close all the rocks look the same. I kept seeing cliffs I could ascend and thinking there probably was an easier way around, and most of the time I was right. Eventually I made it to a cliff band with a small section of snow in a gulley to the left. There were boot steps in the gulley to the top that made following quite simple so I initially followed them but it was short so I didn't want to stop and put on my micro spikes. I did pull out my ice axe for the first time however but after the snow became steep I looked around a bit and off to the side a bit lower I saw some orange flagging at the top of the cliff band. I put two and two together and realized I was at the crux. I was encouraged by the flagging as this was the first marker other than cairns I had seen so I headed up. The crux was very easy, not much to say, the hardest part of this scramble was the route finding and the endurance.

At the top of the crux the grade decreased and there was a short section of well travelled beige rock scree leading up to a beige cliff band. There were a few cairns and orange flagging on this section so I made short work but lost a lot of time navigating the cliff band as it was difficult to determine the smartest path to take and I really didn't want to make a mistake. After a few false starts I found the way and passed the cliff band.

With the two cliff bands in the way I had finally hit the snow and put on my spikes and pulled out my ice axe. The remainder of the climb was pretty straight forward with no scrambling, just one real steep snow section that was painful and a long 400m vertical ridge walk slog to the top. I was tired so this last part took me over an hour however the views were beautiful all around and I took a few pictures. At the top I had a quick sandwich and turned around pretty much immediately. I hadn't seen anyone in over 3 hours and I didn't want to forget the path I took up (it wasn't always super obvious) so I made haste. On reflection I probably didn't need to do that but its a common occurence with me and shows how impatient I am. Anyways I headed down.

Not much to the say about the descent except it was a painful slog but much quicker than the way up since I knew where I was going and its easier to go downhill. I finally saw some other scramblers on the way down (at the crux), a couple who were kind enough to move out of the way so I could hop off quickly. I breathed a sigh of relief after getting down the two cliff bands and making the way back to the boulders as I wasn't really worried at that point. There were now a ton of people in Larch Valley and the sun was shining bright so it was quite pleasant. I stopped for another break at Sentinel Pass and slogged the rest of the way down to the bus. I made it down to my truck at ~4:00 with the ascent having taken 5 hours and the descent 3 hours with some breaks. Total distance ~15km and ~1700m elevation gain. All in all a great trip and a huge peak I was very happy to summit. My first (of hopefully many) Canadian Rocky Mountain 11,000'ers.

I drove back to Canmore to eat, sleep and meet up with a rock climber the next day I had spoken with on Facebook.