Mount Temple | 11000ers of the Canadian Rockies

Mount Temple
3544m, 11627ft
August 18 2024

Mount Temple is the 11th highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies and is the most popular 11000er by far. Because of the lack of technicality on it's standard route it sees heavy traffic in the summer and is a great way for those into scrambling but not yet into more difficult climbing or mountaineering objectives to get a taste for one of the higher summits in the range. Although it's a difficult scramble the majority of that difficulty is condensed around a steep step that you encounter half way up but some scrambling skills are still necessary.

Panoramic view from Mount Temple showing rugged peaks of the Canadian Rockies under a sky with scattered clouds

I had done Mount Temple twice before, the first time as an afternoon / night ascent with the one and only Tyson Smith which was my first ever 11000er in 2020, and the second time with my Dad in 2022. Since my first time up the mountain the Moraine Lake Road had been closed off to personal vehicles so this added another layer of planning for making the trip to Moraine Lake but my Dad and I had biked up the road when we went for it in 2022 without issue so I planned to do the same for future trips rather than booking a shuttle. At this point in 2024 I already had my sights on the 11000ers speed record, and given that my 2022 ascent of Temple was adding almost 2 years to my total elapsed time for the list this made it an easy decision to redo it when an opportunity came up.

A few weeks prior I had been chatting about a Mount Temple outing with Francois, a fellow biathlete and teammate of mine and when he expressed interest we started cooking up plans and his brother Simon and Emma were in as well, both good friends of mine and former biathletes. It didn't take long for us to land on a day with decent weather and although it seemed like we might get stuck with cloudy conditions during our 15km bike up it ended up clearing nicely for some fantastic views from the highest peak in Lake Louise!

Mount Temple really is as simple as they get on the 11000ers of the Canadian Rockies list and is a great way to test your fitness and abilities before upping the ante onto the more high consequence mountains. The effort to views ratio doesn't get much better so for any avid scramblers this peak should be high on your list if you haven't done it already!

links: STRAVA | GAIA
elapsed time: 9hrs
DIFFICULTY: difficult scramble

Closing in on Sentinal Pass, well above treeline now!

Sentinel Pass with views of the Grand Sentinel spire, Lefroy, The Mitre,
Aberdeen, & Haddo Peak behind

Impressive views of Pinnacle Mountain and the Valley of the Ten Peaks, wont be
long till we're high above everything nearby!

Hungabee & Horseshoe Lake now visible to the right of Pinnacle Mountain

Emma & Francois on their way up the second step of the crux

Great views, Mount Victoria North poking out to the far right

Deltaform, The Goodsirs, and Chancellor Peak rising impressively to the SW

Quick break before we begin the summit ridge scree slog

Sir Douglas & Assiniboine in the haze behind a sea of peaks

Safe to say that the effort to views ratio for Mount Temple is through the roof

Found a cool trilobite fossil on the way!

Nearing the crux, some exposure below the
trail in this section

Now just an easy hike and cruisy bike descent
back to the cars!

The legs were feeling it a bit from this one, especially from the bike up to Moraine Lake, but Darren and I had been eyeing up the following day to send big given the good forecast so a rest day was not an option and immediately after getting home I was prepping for the next 11000er trip!