Mount Temple, at 11 760 feet looms above all the other mountains of the Lake Louise-Moraine Lake area. I had been to Sentinel Pass below Temple more than a dozen times and had even hiked up the Temple Trail to the first buttress to have a look at the trail. When I received the invitation out of the blue to join two friends, it took me less than a minute to say "yes." Looking at the weather and logs from recent climbs, I could see that there had been recent snow storms over 10 000 feet so I went into the crawl space to find crampons, an ice axe, and some climbing gear in case it was needed. We met to talk about gear, routes, camping, and a schedule. We drove to Lake Louise to camp overnight, then got an early start the next day. We were at the trail head at Moraine Lake and hiked with headlamps for the first hour.

The first light shone on the mountain tops as we climbed through Larch Valley to the top of Sentinel Pass. Another party was ready to start the climb ahead of us, one of whom was a Swiss guide on vacation. We decided to wait until they climbed past the falling rock zone above the first buttress. Once we started, the route wound through talus lopes and rock outcrops, steep and slow-going up to the prominent ridge above. Using the Parks Canada Guide to Scrambling Mount Temple, we traversed under the first rock band and followed paint markers for a rockwall scramble up a gully to the next grey rock band.

The second rock band is the crux of the mountain and seemed easy going up with fresh legs. Above was the light brown rock step, not technical, but slow going, being careful. All of the middle section is steep rock, requiring concentration and careful climbing. Once past the rock bands, the way beyond was the long, very steep ridge to the top, mostly on snow and slippery ice, exhausting at altitude. We had ice axes and crampons, but chose to use boots and poles to the top.   The final ridge passes cornices and drop offs, but views extend 360 degrees, looking down on tall peaks and over to distant ranges.  Assiniboine stood out to the southeast.    The Wapta Icefields to the northwest.  

At the peak is a level rocky spot just off the glacier.  We stayed on top for 1.5 hrs on a sunny day with no wind, had lunch, enjoyed the view, and took pictures.  We hunted unsuccessfully for a geocaches there, probably buried in the rocks, covered in by two feet of snow, even in August.  

When we started down, we thought it would be much faster, but each step had to be a careful one and we found the route down long and difficult.   The downclimbing through the rockbands was harder than going up.  We could see fixed belay points that would have been useful in slippery conditions.   After 9 hours we reached Sentinel Pass and hiked out the last 1.5 hours down to Moraine Lake, very tired, but satisfied.   It seemed to be a hard scramble, long and tiring.   The dominant memory is a relentlessly steep route, all scramble and no hike, exhausting, and intense.   For rock climbers this is probably an easier summit, but for recreational scramblers, we found this to be a challenge.   Would we do it again?   I would think about it for a minute or so, but would probably say yes again….

If asked, we would go up Temple again, and we wouldn't take a whole minute to decide.