On Sunday, July 28, 2024, we summited Mount Cory in Banff National Park. It turned out to be one of the most fun and rewarding scrambles so far this year.
We didn’t know too much about this summit before we decided to climb it. We had summitted Mount Burstall the day before and we wanted a scramble that had a lot of elevation gain but wasn’t too technically difficult. Mount Burstall was the opposite – not too high but technically challenging.
We also decided we wanted to do a scramble in the Banff area since we’d spent most of our time recently in Kananaskis and wanted a change. We found Mount Cory in Alan Kane’s book “Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies”. He rated it “easy to moderate” (we felt it was more moderate than easy) and had 1,370 meters of height gain. It sounded perfect.
The description of the route in Kane’s book was very brief and we weren’t sure what to expect. The FATMAP app had the route so I felt we wouldn’t have a problem finding our way to the top.
Beta:
- This route is out and back
- Parking: There is a pull-out on the right side of Highway 1A when you’re coming from Banff. It’s about 2 km from the turn-off from the TransCanada.
- Elevation gain: 1,500 meters – more than Kane’s book but we backtracked a bit and climbed a feature we could have goen around so ours is probably a bit high.
- Distance: 10.2 km total
- Difficulty: Steep trail on the lower part. The upper part has off-trail route-finding, some scree and moderate scrambling. There is not too much exposure. There is potential for snow higher up that blocks the trail.
- Gear: Nothing needed beyond normal scrambling gear but I wished I had gaiters to keep scree out of my boots.
Permit Required
A National Park Pass is needed to park at the trailhead.
Helpful Apps
- AllTrails: It is called “Cory Mountain” on Alltrails
- FATMAP
Websites
Books
- Scrambles In the Canadian Rockies by Alan Kane
Trip Report
From the parking pull-out on Highway 1A, follow the trail to the powerlines. Turn right to hike along the power lines a short distance and then turn left onto a trail that heads toward the mountain.
The first part of the trail follows a steep rib up to a plateau. The trail crosses the plateau and then the fun begins. The route overcomes rock formations that look impassable from a distance but have hidden ramps and easy steps that become apparent as you get closer.
The trail up the rib starts in the forest, cllimbing steeply on hard-packed dirt.
At times, the gully on the left is visible.
We followed the trail up to a rocky slope.
We went up a channel in the rocky slope that was like a staircase with hand rails on the sides. I called it a “Stairway to Heaven.”
We gained elevation quickly.
The trail continues up through forest.
At times, the trail becomes more rocky and loose.
The trail here feels steeper than it looks in the photos. The plateau at the top of this steep trail is to the right of the knoll on the left side of the photo below. The route goes across the plateau and then turns to the right, away from the knoll.
Another “stairway to heaven” we climbed easily to get above this rocky slope.
On the way down, we avoided downclimbing this feature by going around on loose scree.
We are much closer to the knoll here.
The route traverses left to the base of the knoll where it crosses the plateau.
Coming around the plateau, we now have the knoll behind us.
We get our first glimpse of the summit ridge. It follows the skyline in the photo from the right to the highest point. This is the false summit. The true summit is behind it, out of sight here.
Here the trail drops down and splits at the bottom. One branch goes up the slope in the middle of the photo to a cave. The other branch goes right to climb the tan coloured scree slope on the upper right side of the photo.
We took the scree slope going up and regretted it later when we realized we should have scrambled up an easy break in the slope to the left of the cave (see below).
Here Dan points to the route up the break in the slope. The cave entrance is up the trail behind Dan.
We came down this way and wished we had used it on the way up. It would have been much more fun than the steep scree we climbed.
Here’s another photo showing the route to the cave. The black arrow points to the scramble option.
Of course we had to go up and check out the cave.
Looking out of the cave.
At the back of the cave, it got narrower and seemed to go down into the mountain. We couldn’t see the end, only a dark hole at the back.
After we saw the cave, we backtracked to where the trail branched. This is the tan coloured scree slope we ascended. It was loose and not much fun.
Above the slope, a well defined trail leads toward interesting rock formations.
We made our way easily through and around the rocks. This part of the trail is less steep than the first half and more interesting.
This part of the route is really pretty as the trail wanders through alpine meadows. It is heading toward the false summit – high point in the distance.
Ultimately, we will not climb to the top of the false summit but pass around it on the right side, heading back to the true summit.
Here we are closer to the steep rock formations between us and the summit. I wondered how the route would get to the top of them.
We start to see the ramps and troughs we can hike up to get to the top of the rock formation.
There was a party of two in front of us and one of them is near the top of the rock in the photo.
Dan is heading toward a spot where we can scramble up.
Here he starts up a trough.
From the top of that rock formation, we see our next obstacle.
The route starts up through the rock along the right side.
Heading towards the rock formation. The route is pretty clear.
There are many helpful cairns that show the easiest way up.
The party of two ahead of us is visible near the top of this rock formation. Zoom in on the top, just left of center to see them.
As we get closer, the route looks a lot less steep and the way up becomes more apparent.
On the way up this section, Dan looks ahead to see if the summit block is visible yet. There is still work to do on this section.
Another “stairway to heaven” feature gets us up the steeper parts of this section.
The rocky slope ahead is the next obstacle. We climbed onto it on the right, where it is lower, and hiked along the top (from right to left in the photo). There is also a trail that goes around below it, along the base of the rock. We took the lower route on our way down.
Both were good but going along the top of the rock involved a bit more scrambling to get up onto it and back down.
Dan works his way along the top of the rocky slope. Ahead on the skyline is the summit. The high point and the summit cairn are on the right.
We are not quite close enough to see if snow will block our way along the summit ridge.
Above the rocky slope, this next section is a hike up a scree covered slope. A trail makes it easier.
The party of two ahead of us is visible partway up the scree slope.
The trail goes up and across the slope toward the summit ridge and a patch of snow coming into view ahead.
Now closer to the patch of snow, we can see a large cornice hanging over the route and guarding the ridge.
On closer inspection, we saw that the snow was melting quickly. A small stream ran from the bottom.
We decided to cross underneath it, one at a time, and climb the loose dirt slope on the right side. That way we would not have to hike onto or through the snow.
Above the cornice, we see that it has melted away from the top of the ridge. We are pleased with our choice to go around it. We stayed dry.
From there, a trail winds along the ridge, just below the top on the left side. The route is straightforward.
The snow on the ridge ahead does not block the route. It has melted enough that the trail is dry.
On the summit, a shelter has been built for the register box.
This summit was really satisfying. I enjoyed the top half of the route, with the rocky slopes and ridges, the clever ramps and “stairways to heaven”, and the moderate scrambling moves. Even though the route starts close to the town of Banff, it felt a bit more remote and wild. It was a nice adventure and a great day.
If you would like to be notified when I publish my next trip report, please subscribe.
Reach the peak!
Read about our other summits: