I had a wonderful opportunity to climb the Mount Norquay via ferrata in Banff, Alberta this summer. On any holiday I like to get up close and personal with the mountains and doing a via ferrata is a great way to achieve this.
There are a few routes to choose from at Mount Norquay, we opted for the easier “Explorer” route. I was with my family from Ontario who are not accustomed to mountains, so they were a little apprehensive. I called ahead to ask what the skill level required is and the response I got was “if you can climb a ladder, you can do this via ferrata”. So it was decided.
Everyone was super excited and confident at the top of the gondola, then we started the hike to the start of the via ferrata. That is where things got a little more difficult for my sister. She had a bit of a panic attack, she was at the back of the pack wondering what she had gotten herself into. The approach was quite an uphill grind and her teenage sons ahead of us were going at a fast clip. The hill dropped off on the one side and she was getting a little weary on her feet. After about 10 minutes, we reached the start of the cable. Once we were clipped in, she felt much better.
The route was fairly easy to climb, we had to use our hands on the rocks as we traversed many sections but the footing was always easy. The suspension bridge was tricky for some of the people in our group because it swayed with each step and the drop was big. There was a section where the cable ended and it was safe to walk around and take a break. The views were great, we overlooked Banff and the amazing blue Bow river.
Once we got to the top of our Explorer route, we looked down and were amazed at how far up the mountain we had climbed. We could see the suspension bridge down below and it looked quite small. Since we were only about half way to the top of the mountain, I didn’t get a huge sense of accomplishment (I’m sure the Ridgewalker and Mountaineer hikers did), but it was well worth the trip.
The unpredictable alpine weather (even in July) had us stopping several times to take a quick break to either put on our rain jackets or remove them. But overall we got lucky with the weather, especially at the end of our hike when we looked down on a rainbow in the valley below. That was worth every raindrop that landed on me.
I’d say this hike was more difficult than the Squamish via ferrata but not as difficult as the Col Rodella, Dolomites Italy via ferrata.