Mount Louis Rock Climbing

Approach

From Banff, drive about 6km west on the Trans-Canada highway and take the Highway 1A exit. Immediately after the exit a road branches right to the Fireside parking area.

From the parking area, follow the trail across the creek. After about 10 minutes a junction is reached. The left fork climbs up a hill and is signed for Cory Pass. Straight ahead is signed for Edith pass. Take the Edith pass trail. 

After ~1 hour you reach a junction in the trail with another sign. The arrow for Edith Pass is scratched off- no matter, follow the Cory Pass trail here (the far side of Cory Pass from the parking lot).

Follow the trail, which climbs gently through forest, past the south and centre peaks of Mount Edith. Eventually the forest will open up and a short descent leads to scree slopes below the north peak of Mount Edith and Mount Louis. The time for the approach is about 2 hours for the Gmoser route and the Kain route, and perhaps 2.5 hours for Homage to the Spider.

The Gmoser route climbs the face visible from the trail while the Kain route approximately climbs the right skyline before joining the upper pitches of the Gmoser route. Homage to the Spider is located around the right side of Mount Louis.

Descent

The descent consists of ten single rappels from bolted anchors and is on the north side of the peak.

From the summit cross locate a bolted rappel anchor at the top of a low angle gully. Make five 30 metre rappels down the gully (or three double rappels), to where it steepens.

Walk up an easy ramp to locate the next rappel anchor. This ramp is climber's left of the gully. Note that a common mistake is to try to climb an earlier ramp. The correct ramp is short, easy looking, and is after the fifth single rappel.

From the top of the ramp, make a 25 metre rappel then a 30 metre rappel (or one double rappel) to a ledge. Walk 5 metres to locate the next station on the wall.

Make a 30 metre rappel to the next anchor in a small alcove/bowl.

Two more single rappels (or one double) leads to easy ground. From here, a steep trail leads down to the base of Mount Louis near the beginning of the Gmoser route.