Lipalian Mountain
Banff
October 11, 2008

Lipalian Mountain has been on my do-list for some time and the Thanksgiving weekend looked like a good time to go. Although it was cold for this time of year, the forecast indicated blue skies. Like the Skoki scrambles in Kane's book, the trip begins at Fish Creek parking.

We hiked up Temple Road and after crossing the bridge and passing some buildings, we started up a ski out on our right. We followed a path in the small pines in the run. At the chair lift the views opened up and we gazed up at the northeast slopes of Lipalian.

We hiked up steep scree before reaching the base of a boulder slope. At first we started to scramble straight up but the snow-covered boulders were not to Dinah's liking so we traversed right to a drainage which was less steep. This seemed like a logical place to ascend but it led us to the middle of a boulder field. Unknowingly we passed a narrow clearing that bypassed the boulder field on the left. I thought we would get through the boulder field quickly, but because of our limited views, I underestimated its size: it was huge!

After a long, miserable struggle through boulders we thankfully reached the scree slopes. The steep scree soon led to the gentler, broad slopes below the summit.

We reached the summit four and a half hours after starting out. Not only did the boulder field impede us, but we suffered from the cold. It was -10°C when we started out and our toes soon froze. I added toe-warmers while Dinah massaged her toes back to life.

By the time we reached the summit it had warmed up a bit and since there was no wind our stay on top was pleasant. Certainly the surrounding snow-covered summits merited viewing under clear, blue skies. We had no trouble naming several peaks around us.

There was no reason to turn back immediately on such a fine day, so we hiked the east ridge to the next high point, informally called “Purple Mound.” It only took half an hour but we lost 100 m of elevation. Although not far from Lipalian, the views here were different and striking enough to make Purple Mound a worthwhile destination.

After reaching the summit, we decided to head back to Lipalian, although it meant regaining 100 m of elevation. The views were too nice to leave the alpine region just yet.

When we reached the scree slope above the boulder field, we headed down a trail in the scree on our right. This time, we easily circumvented the boulders above the ridge and then worked our way down to the chairlift. From there we hiked back on the ski out and Temple Road.

Download route for Google Earth