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Tower of Babel

Published by vdewit on April 27th, 2009

Trip Details

Trip Activity:

Scramble

Attained Summit?:

Yes

Location:

Banff National Park

Trip Date:

June 30, 2007

Summit Elevation:

2,310m

Summit Elevation (ft):

7,579ft

Trip Report

After scrambling up Panorama Ridge I decided that to make the day more interesting I should also bag Tower of Babel. Since this scramble starts from the Consolation Lakes trail it makes perfect sense to combine it with a trip up Panorama Ridge. I would do Panorama Ridge first, because if you do it the other way around you may be sick of scree before you make it to the top of the ridge!

Two things about the Tower of Babel scramble surprised me. First was how solid the climb up the gully was if you stick to climbers left right under the towering cliffs above you. This is also the safest strategy because it's highly unlikely that rockfall would come straight down the cliff without bouncing off towards the middle or the right side of the gully. The second surprising thing was that on a July long weekend I was the only scrambler on the whole route at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on a gorgeous day!

Personally I feel that the rating on Babel should be closer to 'moderate' than 'easy'. Sure, it's a very short and fast trip but it's also relatively dangerous in the gully. Thank goodness I was the only one in there! If anyone was coming down while I went up it would have been interesting. Near the top of the gully it's pretty steep and could cause some more sensitive hiking folks a bit of stress.

Make sure you take the gully right under the cliffs, I did see 2 parties off-route on a gully to the right (climber's) of the proper one. I loved the couch and chair at the summit and kind of wished I had a couple of hours to kill up there! The view is excellent. I climbed up in 41 minutes and back down in 22. I managed to catch Sonny and Kelly on the Consolation Lakes trail just as they were coming out from Panorama Ridge so that was excellent!

A recommended scramble, especially if you combine it with another such as Panorama Ridge for a two peak day.