Mount Aylmer Scramble
the dream team reunites with physical preparation at its worst
Mount Aylmer Scramble
Notable Visited Landmarks
Lakes
Mountains
Introduction
Mount Aylmer is a 36km, 2000m elevation gain out and back trip to the top of the Palliser Range in Banff National Park. There are seasonal trail restrictions in the Lake Minnewanka area that require you have 4 people in your hiking group for certain times of the year usually from some date in July to some date in August for bear safety. If you plan to do this trip with less than 4 people as we did then you will need to be aware of when these restrictions are in place. We went on July 5, 2020 (year 1 of the covid).
Mount Aylmer is 22km on trail and 14km off trail. The off-trail section is for the most part class 2 taking you along wide ridge and up scree slopes. There is a class 4 downclimb along the ridge you will need to make on your way there that you will have to climb up on your descent. You can also find some fun class 5 terrain around this section of the ridge if you want the extra challenge.
As Mount Aylmer is the tallest mountain in the Palliser Range and all the East Banff ranges of the Canadian Rockies the views are excellent as you would expect. Because the views are so good and the terrain isn’t bad, I would highly recommend this trip, the reward is worth the effort.
GPS route from the day
Trail to Aylmer Lookout
You will want to park at Lake Minnewanka and follow the roads East along the shore of the lake until you get to the trailhead for Aylmer Pass and Aylmer Lookout. There are 2 general routes you can take; you can go almost to Aylmer pass and head up a grassy slope to the ridge or go to Aylmer Lookout and take the ridge from the beginning of the ridge. We went with the Aylmer Lookout route because it is longer, and we were training for the Cyclone Challenge at the time.
The first 8km of the trail follow the North shore of Lake Minnewanka East where there is minimal elevation gain. The end of this flat section is marked by a bridge over a creek and a campground. There will be a sign directing you to go North towards Aylmer Pass and Aylmer Lookout. We filled up water at the creek, it is the best place to get water before the ascent.
Follow the trail North for a bit and after a kilometer or 2 the trail to Aylmer Lookout will cut back South-East as the trail to Aylmer Pass continues North. Follow the trail to Aylmer Lookout. Most of this section will be pretty boring since it is on trail and mainly in the trees. Once you get to Aylmer Lookout you will finally be able to see things though! Including Mount Aylmer.
Bridge marking the end of the 8km flat section
Lake Minnewanka from Aylmer Lookout
Mount Aylmer from Aylmer Lookout
Mount Aylmer from Aylmer Lookout
From the Lookout start along the wide ridge North towards Mount Aylmer, there will be parts of the ridge where you may have to bushwhack, and there will be parts of the ridge where you may pick up a faint trail. For a long way it will basically be an easy class 1/2 walk. Eventually the ridge will lose all its vegetation and you be able to see your route to the summit. There is still another 700 vertical meters to the top from here.
Bushwhack on the ridge
Trail we found on the ridge
Approximate route up from further along the ridge
Stay climber’s left so that you are on the ridge and not heading up a gully. As you head up the slope you will want to cut climber’s right just before the ridge turns to the North-East. Continue to the follow the ridge up through larger scree until you get to a high point on the ridge. Everything up to the highpoint should be class 2 so if it is harder you likely took a wrong turn somewhere.
Place where I started to head climber’s right
Urbi coming up the larger scree
Mount Aylmer from the highpoint along the ridge
From the highpoint you will reach a series of downclimbs. Start by descending along the ridge, the first downclimb will be to your right, it is class 4 and there is a bit of an overhang at the end, but the holds are solid.
Route to class 4 downclimb from highpoint on the ridge
Footage from the class 4 downclimb
After this downclimb continue to follow the drop to your left, you will have 2 more class 3 downclimbs on your right, the last one leading to the final ascent slope, when we were there it led to a patch of snow leading to the ascent slope.
Urbi and Michael on one of the class 3 downclimbs
Urbi crossing the snow patch that leads to the final ascent slope from the last downclimb
The ascent slope started off as loose scree which luckily turned to solid snow which heled with our ascent. We started to wrap around the slope to climber’s right where we came to a drop which we followed to the top. The final ascent slope is class 2 and it very beautiful as your views are now limited only to the East.
The start of the ascent slope is loose scree
Views opening up
We made use of snow further up on the slope
Drop to our right which we followed to the top
The views from the summit are fantastic! We spent about half an hour on the summit soaking in the views before we decided to head back down.
View from the summit looking North-East
View from the summit looking East
View from the summit with Michael looking North-West
Once you finish that downclimb it is a short walk to the summit of Pipestone, enjoy the views, they are well deserved. We had been going for more than 9 hours at this point and there was almost 9 more hours to go so get your rest in.
Descent
Our descent was for the most part the same as our ascent. We had an easy time going down the scree/snow slope. On the downclimbs which were now climbs we went up the same way except for one of the class 3 sections which I upgraded to class 5.
Urbi coming up the first climb from the snow patch
Footage of my alternate class 5 route
From the highpoint on the ridge the route was the same, we took a stop at the shore of Lake Minnewanka to dip our feet in the water. The rocks were in the lake were sore on my feet and the water was extremely cold since the lake is so large. It would probably suck to swim in Lake Minnewanka.
We made it back to the car in just under 13 hours, you can likely do it faster since Urbi and I were scrambling the day before and Michael only had 3 hours of sleep. Also, the first and last 8 kilometers which is essentially flat can be biked which should save you time and energy.
Mount Aylmer is a great earlyish season scramble with great views and will help get you in shape for larger objectives later in the season.
Urbi making his way back to the highpoint on the ridge
After 8 hours everyone was ready for a nice rest
Short break on the way back along the ridge