June 15th 2026. Banff National Park, AB.
Round Trip: 2 Hours ascent from Shadow Lake Lodge; 7.5 hour day lodge to car via Vista Lakes
Elevation Gain: +540m from lodge
Mostly Hiking / post-holing
This was my first peak of the 2026 summer season and was part of Bri & I’s first wedding anniversary weekend. I decided to treat us to a night’s stay at Shadow Lake Lodge, as it turned out it was the tail-end of their opening weekend. Admittedly this meant our celebrations were slightly belated from the actual date but its just as well things were belated as this ended up being a post-holing mission! The spring snow pack held on strong into June and indeed, the folks next door to us at the lodge did the same route on skis. Shout-outs to them as we merely plodded up their boot-packing tracks.
Somewhat oblivious to how much snow was still covering Gibbon Pass (which I incorrectly kept referring to as “Gibson’s” pass), we opted to hike in via the Vista & Arnica Lakes side. I had previously read trip reports from Bob Spirko and Vern Dewitt on the area, and indeed Vern did the same trip in larch season but summited in the same day. Hauling somewhat heavy overnight packs and post-holing most of the trail, we opted to summit Gibbon Pass Peak on the second day during the hike out. Rounding up the first day was roughly 15km from the Vista Lake carpark to Shadow Lake Lodge, with +950m total elevation gain… if going up Gibbon Pass Peak in the same one-way trip add another 280m of elevation gain.
Not much to report on for this one. Approaching from Vista Lakes you lose and regain a surprising amount of elevation but are rewarded with tremendous views of Mount Ball, and of Mount Assiniboine. Alternatively the approach from Redearth Creek would be more gradual and allow for cycling part way in. Having taken Readearth Creek trail for Copper Mountain in 2025, we opted for the more adventurous route. Plus, we don’t own bikes, despite living in Golden.
Other than the post-holing, there are no difficulties for this ascent and from the lodge it only took Bri and I around 2 hours to summit. PeakVisor shows at least 3 routes up the western slopes, we went up the middle one and down the northern most, which resulted in a very brief light bushwhack back to the main trail. In terms of effort vs reward, I would put this in the same category as The Judge and Paget Peak. Very beginner friendly, and seemingly quite a busy peak based on all the summit register entries we read. With that said, I would recommend waiting till mid or late July so that the trails are fully dry and snow free. Or better yet, wait till autumn for larch season and you might also be able to ascend Gibbon Pass West Peak (looked like a scramble?). With all the gradient dips in the trail, there were several sections of trail flooded by snow melt which made for a messy wet hike. We lost the trail on several occasions but only ever briefly. Asides from wet feet this was an excellent two-day weekend with Gibbon Pass Peak being the cherry on top!
