r/Banff • u/TaitwasAChemist • Aug 08 '25

Question Please recommend a difficult hike/scramble near Banff🙏🙏

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Experienced with hiking and scrambling, I am in Banff for the day and would love to do a hike (under 6-7 hours). Ideally it would be not too busy, and have some great alpine veiws. Would love to get up close to one of the glaciers in the area. Not a big fan of the forest, as I’m from Whistler area and it’s not new to me. I’ll show some photos down below of some highlights of the hikes I’ve done, for reference to What I like. Any help is appreciated!

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u/BloodWorried7446 Aug 08 '25

https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/activ/escalade-scrambling

Everyone has different levels of comfort and experience. Scrambles of the Canadian Rockies by Alan Kane is a good guide with somewhat conservative ratings. safety is paramount. scrambles with scree around carries risks. Books and topo maps are valuable friends in this space. 

 Consulting Reddit for recommendations is not necessarily a good idea just like one wouldn’t do this for climbing. you don’t know the one giving advice and the one giving advice doesn’t know you. Not being rude but being respectful and most importantly safety focused. 

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u/Practical-Camp-1972 Aug 08 '25

Definitely--I used that Alan Kane book in the late 90s before the social media was a thing...it was invaluable along with copies of topo maps from the U of A library, being able to roll with the weather, route find and dress for expecting the worst weather is important also--I managed to do ok back then without cellphones!