Mount Temple
Location: Alberta, CanadaParticipants: Michelle Wong, Jacob, Jeremy Stroman, Leanne Christianson, Jacqueline Cornish, Patrick Latter Time: 10 Hours Weather: 15°C Elevation Gain: 1690m Max Elevation: 3543m Start Time: 6:20am
Directions
Take Highway 1 from Calgary and turn left at the Lake Louise exit. Then follows the signs for Moraine Lake.
Gear
- Hiking Boots
- Food
- Water
- Shell
- Warm fleece
- Gaiters
- Gloves
- Helmet (For falling rocks)
Camera Gear Used:
Map
Story
Mount Temple is the ninth highest Mountain in the Canadian Rockies and is unique in that you don't need ropes or other gear to summit despite it's height.
The trail begins at Moraine Lake and we made our way up a series of switchbacks towards Larch Valley. In the fall, all of the 'Larch' pine tree turn yellow and lose their needles. This portion of the trail can be extremely popular.
Once we reached the top of 'Sentinel Pass' we stopped to have some lunch as we fended off a horde of hungry squirrels.
From the top of 'Sentinel Pass' we followed the ridge along our left.
There are fantastic views of Mount Pinnacle just a few 100 meters up from the pass.
As we followed the ridge we eventually made it to a rock band that required some moderate scrambling.
If your not comfortable with heights, a belay station could be setup here.
As we gained elevation the towering 'Mount Pinnacle' grew smaller and smaller.
Roughly 300m from the summit we reached a section of the mountain that had just received a light dusting of snow... in August.
The final few hundred meters were pretty slow going as the altitude was beginning to affect us.
Once at the summit we were treated to some AMAZING views, despite being right in the clouds at times.
That now small blue lake is where we started just 5 hours earlier.
With cold winds at the top, we decided to head back down after just 15 minutes.
Michelle happy to be almost finished after summiting Mount Temple on only 1 Hour of sleep.
Five minutes later...
