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Panorama Ridge

Home » Mountains » Banff National Park
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: 
2,824m
Summit Elevation (ft): 
9,266ft
Related Content
Interesting Facts: 
(info from peakfinder.com) Named in 1959. The view from the summit of the mountains above Consolation Valley and the Valley of the Ten Peaks undoubtedly inspired this name. Official name.  
Related Trips: 
Tower of Babel
Other Trip Reports: 
www.dowclimbing.com/PanoramaRidge.html

Trip Report

On Saturday, June 30 2007, I joined Sonny, Kelly, Jess, Frank, Jason and Raff for a fun trip up Panorama Ridge near Consolation Lakes in the Morainne Lakes area of Lake Louise in Banff National Park.

The original idea to scramble Panorama Ridge was from Sonny and he was most interested in the traverse of the ridge as documented by Dow Williams on his web site. I was mostly only interested in bagging another 'Kane peak' so I decided right away that I would try to get both the ridge and the Tower of Babel while Sonny would do his traverse. Kelly was going to descend on her own and wait for us.

As the trip evolved, more people became interested until we had a nice group going. This made the relatively boring scramble a lot more pleasant.

Don't get me wrong. The scenery is hard to beat on this trip! It's just that the actually scrambling is pretty much non-existent. I think Sonny had the right idea by going straight up the ridge instead of curling around to climbers right. It sounded like him and Kelly had some interesting scrambling once they started traversing over the ridge to the summit. Of course you don't even actually reach the highest point on the ridge unless you do the traverse - but you do accomplish the Kane route. You will also get wet feet if you decide to do this scramble while the water is high.

Because of the lateness of the day and the fact that so many people would have to wait for him, Sonny decided against doing the traverse. I'm sure he'll be back to do it though. Again - fabulous views for a small amount of effort but not the most exciting scrambling I've ever done! The company is what made this trip fun. For better scrambling I headed down before anyone else and managed to bag Tower of Babel in the same day - a highly recommended two peak day to make things a bit more interesting.


Frank tries to dance across the outlet of Consolation Lakes. It didn't work.

The view is great even before we start up!

We reach the start of the rubble with Mount Temple looming in the background.

The view towards Mount Bident, Quadra and Fay with the Consolation Lakes below is stunning already part way up the ridge.

Tower of Babel and Mount Temple.

Mounts Babel and Fay as seen across the valley on the way up Panorama Ridge.

Jason doesn't look so big next to a mountain!

Mount Babel, Fay and Quadra.

JW near the top of the ridge.

You can just make out two people on the summit of Panorama Ridge.

Bident and Quadra.

The two Slovacs at the top of Panorama Ridge (Kane).

Looking back along the ridge towards Mount Temple.

A view towards the Valley of Ten Peaks.

Mount Babel.

Quadra and Bident.

Summit panorama (click to view full size).

JW relaxing on the summit.

Looking at Mounts Tuzo, Deltaform and Neptuak.

Wenkchemna Peak, partially hidden in clouds.

Close up of Quadra.

Mount Fay Summit.

Mount Douglas and St. Bride.

Vern on the summit of Panorama Ridge.

Raff enjoys the view.

Another gorgeous view into the Consolation Lakes Valley.

Mount Temple.

The ascent slopes as seen from the bottom of the avi slope.