"An ascent of Portal Peak and Mount Thompson from Bow Hut, and then an overnight stay at Peyto Hut. Portal Peak was enjoyable once you made it through the chossy slog to get to the summit block. We found a mostly moderate scrambling route, with one difficult step. Lots of traversing side to side and route finding on this one, great views! After Portal Peak, we went up Mount Thompson hiking on acceptably stable blocky rocks. Not much to say about Thompson other than great views. 13.5 km 1300m gain in 9.5 hours which includes lots of breaks for photos, snacks, etc. These stats do not include the entrance into Bow Hut nor the exit from Peyto Hut to the car." — hollywilliams • Jul 29, 2025

"Went into Bow Hut, then Portal Peak and Mt Thompson on the way to Peyto Hut. Annoyed with the weather so far this summer, we did what we could with the short weather window. Thankfully it worked out great with perfect weather. Read all kinds of things about Portal Peak, from sketchy free-soloing on loose rock to a moderate scramble. Happy to report it's not 5th class as climbed from the glacier, but I can't call it a moderate scramble, it's still difficult, but only just above moderate if you go the right way. If you go the wrong way, you're probably gonna be risking your life several times. There's some route finding and the rock is absolutely terrible but it's never extreme. Still a decent amount of hands on, steep terrain, loose rocks galore, and route finding, I don't think there's any comparable moderate scrambles that I can think of. We did it from the glacier which makes it less technical, I believe the traditional access is quite stiff, making it for sure a difficult scramble from Iceberg Lake area. It was enjoyable for the route and views, but it was one of the chossiest peaks I've done in a while. A true Rockies mess! I drew a line for the route for the easiest path, it's..." — jakefinnan • Jul 28, 2025

"We planned to do Thompson & Portal but due to the late start ended up only climbing Thompson. Mt. Thompson would normally be classified as a hike (Class I terrain) via gentle SW slope but it crosses Wapta Icefield for 2km so it is a glacier climb." — Taras • Jul 10, 2021

"Wapta conditions & Mt Thompson - Mar 14, 15 2020. 3 of us went in to Peyto Hut and back via Bow Lake. Skied Mt Thompson on our way out. Widespread wind affect pretty typical for the Wapta, but in more places than usual due to the opposing winds during the week. Lots of wind slabs/ crusts, drumming, cracking, sastrugi, and crappy skiing to be found! Cold snow was slow and high friction until later on Sunday. Coverage all over is fantastic, though. I probed 5 or 6 times over the weekend and only once was it under 3m (290cm). Average of ~310cm otherwise. Snow depth on the ice field is very good. We were able to ski from the summit of Mt Thompson and didn't hit a single rock the whole way, which isn't typical.... however, the ski quality was nothing to brag about. Alpine weather on Sunday was absolutely incredible, with perhaps the best weather day I've ever had on skis. Snow remained dry all day, too. There were tons of parties out, some pictured. Of note - there were cornice collapses on the N face on Rhondda, and E face of Mt Baker - neither of which resulted in an avalanche, sweet. Snow stability in the area seemed good - save for some random wind-slabs which we found to be non rea..." — jakefinnan • Mar 15, 2020

"From Bow Hut, traversed across the Wapta Icefield to Thompson. Easy gentle slope to the summit. There is a memorial at the peak of Thompson and we were unsure which was the true peak so we took a photo on both. Later that day we traversed to Rhonda South peak. " — dkmountainman • May 20, 2012

"Winter ski mountaineering trip with Dave Time we'll Chris Prattemail Bake and myself . Left BC on Jan 30 stayed at Canmore Clubhouse that night. Next day skied across Peyton. LAKE ANDROID THEORY Peyton Glacier to the Peter Whytehut. The weather detonated during the day to white out. Feb 1 was worse weather we skied map and cm as via the Wapta Icefield to the Bow Hut. This was a mistake. It was the old hut a tin igloo it was freezing, we spent the night here. The next day cleared and we skied up the gentle south slope of Thompson. The views of the ice field went on forever. The parkway 5000 feet below were outstandinf. The east slop dropped a mile straight down. A great day." — andrewbrintnell1 • Feb 2, 1987