Mount Temple - Definition and Overview

Mount Temple
North face of Mt. Temple from Mt. Fairview large version (44KB)
Elevation:	3,543 metres (11,624 feet)
Latitude:	51° 21′ 10" N
Longitude:	116° 12′ 20" W
Location:	Alberta, Canada
Topo map:	NTS 82N/08
Range:	Canadian Rockies
First ascent:	1894 by Samuel Allen, Walter Wilcox and L.F. Frissel
Easiest route:	scramble (SW)

Mount Temple is a mountain in Banff National Park of the Canadian Rockies. Mt. Temple is located in the Bow River Valley between Paradise Creek and Moraine Creek and is the highest peak in the Lake Louise area. The peak dominates the western landscape as one travels northwest along the Trans-Canada Highway from Castle Junction to Lake Louise.

The mountain was named by George Mercer Dawson in 1884 after Sir Richard Temple who visited the Canadian Rockies in the same year. Mt. Temple was also the first 11,000 foot peak to be climbed in the Canadian segment of the Rocky Mountains.

On July 11 1955, in one of Canada's most tragic mountaineering accidents, seven American male teenagers were killed on the southwest ridge route. A warm summer day had caused several nearby avalanches. They finally decided to turn back and during the descent, an avalanche swept 10 members of the party 200 metres (650 ft) down the snowfield through a bottleneck of rocks. Unfortunately, the entire party only had one ice axe among them and were not well prepared for the seriousness of the route. The party had also gone up the route without either of their two group leaders.

In 1996 on a blissful summer day, a small wedding ceremony was performed on the summit. Apparently, the wedding night was not spent on top.

Routes

The mountain offers several routes for climbers and the normal route on the southwest side offers a moderate class scrambling route. See Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies for a description of that route. One however, must be careful on this "easy" climb due to falling rock and if lost on the route, steep cliffs and avalanches.

• South-West Ridge (Normal Route) I
  • By late July or early August, the southwest ridge is generally free of snow and is a moderate scramble for experienced parties. An ice axe is recommended for the summit.
• East Ridge IV 5.7
• North Face, Elzinga/Miller IV 5.7

Current route conditions can be obtained from a climbing warden at the park information centre in Lake Louise. A climber's log outside the centre may also provide comments from other climbers.

External links

• Mt. Temple on Peakfinder (http://www.peakfinder.com/peakfinder.ASP?PeakName=Mount+Temple) - more peak history
• Mt. Temple on Peakware (http://www.peakware.com/encyclopedia/peaks/temple.htm) - unofficial summit log
• 1955 Accident Report (http://alpineclub-edm.org/accidents/accident.asp?id=601)