3,543 m / 11,624 ft - The trailhead starts at Moraine Lake so be prepared to arrive VERY early to get a parking spot.
This mountain is one of the Canadian Rockies 11,000ers and is the most accessible mountain to be climbed. This means that it is very busy. I have never been on a peak that is this busy. Due to this fact, I feel very strongly that helmets should be mandatory. There is always the chance of rock falls but there is an even higher chance that groups above you will knock down rocks. Mount Temple has the highest amount of incidents and deaths for any peak in Banff National Park.
My group hiked it on September 5th, 2020. A snowstorm was forecast for that evening and possibly this would have been the last day to climb it before 'winter' arrived. Mount Temple has such a short season with it becoming hikeable from mid-August until the very start of September. The window to climb it is normally about 2-3 weeks per year.
My favourite part of the climb are the views which are obviously incredible and we had such a perfect weather window. My second favourite part is the comradery on the mountain. Everyone was sleep deprived from sleeping for a few hours at the trailhead or having to wake up at 2 am to drive to the trailhead. With Moraine Lake being the most sought after location in the Rockies and with no shuttle service provided this year due to covid, the limited parking is highly sought after. We got one of the last six parking spots and we were there at 5:20 am. It was anxiety-inducing, to say the least! Everyone we met on the mountain was having the best days of their lives and were so much fun to be around. We sang songs with strangers, gave people nicknames, took photoshoots for peoples tinder profiles, chatted about gear and whatever else came to our minds. I have never experienced so many people loving life and being an extrovert myself I found the social aspect of this climb to be so much fun.
I have included a few blogs below that I believe would be excellent resources in finding out more information about the climb and to be used as navigational tools. I would only recommend this climb to people who have good scrambling experience and are prepared for a LONG day.
