Mt Temple is the undisputed Patriarch of the Lake Louise area. At 3,543m (11,625 ft) it is the 11th tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies and one of the most accessible as well. Spied by George Dawson in1884 he named it for Sir Richard Temple who was a well respected surveyor and scientist of the time. While Temple got a mountain George Dawson did all right and had Dawson City Yukon and Dawson Creek named after him.
The first ascent of Mt Temple wasn’t until 11 years later in 1894 when Walter Wilcox, Samuel Allen, and L.F. Frissel cruised up the SW Ridge, or the “tourist route”.
The scramble up Mt Temple is relatively straightforward but can make for a very long day. It is 1700m of vertical gain from the trail head at Moraine Lake and the first time I climbed this mountain back in 2006 it took us 11 hours car-to-car. This time the time was much faster and we did it in 8hrs round trip.
