Tower of Babel Banff Scramble July 1, 2021

Canada Day on Tower of Babel, Moraine Lake

Scramble with Kevin K and Stu.

About 6 km and 550 m

The rock is Quartzite so harder and breaks into blocks and rectangles so not as stable in piles versus limestone and shale. Very slippery when wet. Trail not much better or maybe worse than 20 years ago.

Well worth finding the UP Trail in drainage to right of trees and the scree fan which takes you to the RH corner of gully. Off trail stuff is ugly, very loose and dangerous and do not punish yourself with trying to go up the scree down trails. Do not be below others as head sized quartzite boulders can come down. Last time we went up left side which looked to still have an ok dirt trail but the RH ledges had some good trails and much better hands on scrambling on steps and we were out of the line of fire/off fall line. Helmets mandatory.

On way down we stayed on skiers LH side and on the little ledge systems/steps we went up on. We even followed some ledges and trails left off into the trees which was good. Dropped out right near the bottom of the gully and then went out into the center of gully and slid down a line of good scree most of the way down the fan. then follow a trail down to consolation lakes trail and out.

Pics

About Bill Kerr

Weekend climber, scrambler and backcountry skier from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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