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Mount Bident  3084 m

Banff National Park

Mounts Bident and Quadra seen from Lower Consolation Lake

Mount Bident sits in close proximity to world-famous Moraine Lake in the Canadian Rockies, although the mountain summit averages less than one ascent per year. This peak can be done as a mountaineering scramble in one day by competent parties with good route-finding skills. The best time is late July to September as you need snow-free conditions. If in doubt, it would be prudent to take a rope and some protection, either a few pins or small stoppers, and an ice-axe.

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Mount Bident seen from Consolation Pass, with our approximate ascent route shown. The ascent starts by a hike from Moraine Lake to Consolation Lakes, wading the outlet stream, and then trudge back to Consolation Pass. This takes about 3 hours. From the Pass, you gain the ridge from the right side of picture, follow it onto the face, and look for the easiest way through the rockbands. Simple, eh? In 1998, we met the resident grizzly of Moraine Lake on the hike in. He huffed at me before continuing down to Moraine Lake, possibly to see the daily crop of (meatier) tourists.

On the east face of Mount Bident. Typical scrambling on typical Rockies loose rock; not to be taken for granite (yuk yuk!). We have traversed along on scree-covered ledges to find the first easy place to scramble through a steep rockband.  

Exposed scrambling above a steep snow gully on  the face. A rope is only necessary here if you fall! This photo hints at why the face must be snow-free to safely do unroped. With a rope, there are many more climbing possibilities. 

Happy to be on top, 6 hours from the car, we have a fine view of Consolation Lakes and Mount Temple (3543 m), the big peak at the upper left. Mount Temple's "tourist" route is fully described in Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies.

Carefully descending via a snow gully near Mount Quadra on the south side of Mount Bident. After this,  you hike all the way back around the peak to the east side again. Fortunately, most of this return is a pleasant, scenic walk, or at least it is on a sunny day.

In beautiful alpine meadows southeast of Mount Bident on the return. The snowy peak in the centre is Mount Ball, also described in the above-mentioned scrambles book. Our complete round trip time for Mount Bident was about 12 hours from Moraine Lake. I had tried this peak once before in July, but was unsuccessful due to snow remaining, so it felt good to succeed today, especially with such fabulous weather. Later this same year, I visited Mount Bryce and Mount Robson.

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© All photos copyright by the author 1999.

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