Tower of Babel
- July 2, 2002
- Mountain height: 2,360 m (7,740 feet)
- Elevation gain: 450 m
- Ascent time 1:30
- Descent time: 1 hour
Scrambling with Colleen.
The Tower of Babel gives you great "bang for your buck"! It's extremely short, has a very small amount of elevation gain, up interesting terrain, and is amazingly scenic for such a low mountain (actually, it's just the north end of Mount Babel, not a separate mountain). The ascent gully is not half as steep as it looks from Moraine Lake road, and even requires some minor hands-on stuff near the top. At the top of the gully the spacious and cairn-filled summit is only 5 minutes away. The summit panorama is better than many peaks that are considerably higher and you could easily soend a couple of hours there, exploring and admiring the stunning scenery.
The summit of the Tower of Babel from the top of the ascent gully
The Consolation Lakes from the top of the gully; the snowy peak near the right is Mount Quadra
Summit cairns, Moraine Lake, and a few mountains from "The Valley of the Ten Peaks"; the tallest is pyramidal-shaped Deltaform Mountain at 3, 424 meters (center)
More cairns, Deltaform at the left, and shapely Eiffel Peak at the right
Enjoying an Egg McMuffin at the dinner table (and chair, that was remarkably comfortable for something made out of rocks!)
Tower of Babel II
- July 4, 2002
Scrambling with Colleen and Mum.
Colleen and I were so impressed with this scramble that we decided to drag my Mum up it, only two days after our first ascent. Unfortunately, we did not get the same beautiful weather as before and some idiot in the group (who will remain nameless)decided to take an alternate route to the base of the mountain that added 45 minutes of excruciating (and sometimes quite humorous - Colleen getting stuck on that log was priceless) bushwhacking which would have taken less than 10 minutes had we stuck to the trail (he quickly lost credibility after that decision!).
It rained during much of the ascent and at the summit strong winds and and blowing snow forced us to make a hasty retreat. On the way down, I accidentally knocked a huge boulder (about the size of a Marshall half-stack) and it went crashing violently down the entire gully. The rock bounced dangerously of the sides of the gully, going in all directions and it would have killed anyone in its path (remind me to never start this scramble late in the day, when other parties might be descending). It was quite sobering, knowing that I could have killed a person below. By the time we got to the bottom, the sky had cleared almost completely - had we braved the snow at the summit for about 30 minutes, Mum would have been able to see the awesome scenery we enjoyed two days earlier. An enjoyable day, but also one of all-around bad timing!
P.S. Great job Mum!
Colleen enjoying the extraordinary comfort of a log over ice-cold, rushing water
The Tower of Babel from Consolation Lakes Trail; this picture was taken on descent, after the untimely blizzard at the summit!
Mum and Colleen ascending the gully
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