If you look at the Lake Louise Area from a distance you’ll see lots of very noticeable mountains, Mount Victoria, Mount Fairview, the Big Beehive and so on. It seems one of the less talked about mountains is Mount St Piran. In early October 2014 I decided to take on this mountain, after having read about it in the book ‘Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies’ by Alan Kane.
Mount St Piran takes the same route as the one to Lake Agnes (when you come to a fork in the Lake Louise shoreline trail take the right hand fork), but you turn off before you reach the lake and take the trail to the Little Beehive, which is exceptional in itself.
Stopping to take a break at the Little Beehive it was nice to have the top to myself to take some photographs and read an information board about the foundations of a fire lookout which once stood on the Little Beehive.
Carrying on with the hike, I had to backtrack a little to find the trail for Mount St Piran, which isn’t particularly well marked. The trail off from the Little Beehive trail was pretty feint at the start but soon became a more well-defined, if narrow, switchback trail.
It didn’t take particularly long to reach the summit, there were a couple of rocky sections, and the summit is covered in scree. It was fairly windy up top, so I didn’t spend much time up there after taking a couple of photos.
The easiest way back down is to return the same way via the Little Beehive, and I really recommend taking this route. In ‘Scrambles in the Canadian Rockies’ by Alan Kane, another return route is described, which goes down the back of Mount St Piran – I took this route and it is very much a scramble, if you decide to take this route used the aforementioned book by Alan Kane and take a detailed topographic map (and be prepared!).
A stop back at Lake Agnes makes a nice break on the way down, and another photographic opportunity.
The total return distance for this hike is approximately 13km (roughly 8 miles) with an elevation gain of 900 metres (approximately 2950 feet).
© RockiesOutdoors 2015.
You make beautiful descriptions of the places you photograph.
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Amazing views, I really must get to the Canadian Rockies sometime.
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Absolutely fantastic photos. Thank you for writing about such an interesting route; I have added the hike to my list!
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Beautiful photographs. I’m adding this to my list, too!
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Makes the “mountains” in my Australian blogs look like little bumps! Spectacular views. What a beautiful place!
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Gorgeous! I need to spend some time there for sure and soon.
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Absolutely beautiful, would love to get over there one day!
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Thank you! 🙂
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