I am planning to take a trip up into this area this summer, mid to late August. A couple of questions:

Recommended climbing and/or hiking guidebook.

I will be travelling solo. What is a recommended mountaineering peak that does not have any substantial glacier travel and sustained climbing above 4th class. Basically a reasonable solo.

A recommended peak for a guided trip, with climbing difficulty no greater than 5.6, AI3. Also recommended guide service to consider.

likely you've already skimmed thru the links here:
http://www.summitpost.org/banff-nat-l-park/170874

but what you really want to do is pick up a copy of this and give it a thorough going-through (beautiful book, btw):
https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5045-642/ ... tral-Guide

MEC is well worth joining also: its like an REI stateside, but on steroids - a real candy shop

btw, for semi-technical scrambles, the two additional books i'd recomend are the aptly named 'Scrambles in the CanaDIAN rOCKIES':

https://www.mec.ca/en/search/?text=scra ... an+rockies

Lougheed near Canmore is class 2-3 and glacier free. The standard route on Temple near Banff is also moderate. Farther north and far less crowded, Cline is mostly easy with one low-5th-class notch and some easy snow travel.

Sharperblue has a sharp eye for good books. The David Jones guidebook is brand new and an excellent source of many new and older, unknown routes, I love it, cuddle with it often. Although I love this book, the approach beta is limited and IMHO, best suited for persons familiar with the lay of the land in the Rockies. The scramble guidebooks are more designed and written for novices or person less familiar with the region. For travelling solo and peak bagging, I would recommend the Kane scramble guide, Kane provides more summits in the Banff and Jasper than Nugara; and you want to be in Banff. Front country will be nasty with tourists, but the backcountry is grand.

Seano is no stranger to our Rockies, and he made an fantastic recommendation. Mount Temple is the best, easy scramble in Banff National Park. Lots of sources of beta on line (http://www.summitpost.org/mount-temple/150408 and http://www.explor8ion.com/vern/scramble ... emple.html) are great sources. But expect crowds and rock fall potential from idiots, almost there is usually a requirement of 4 to 6 hikers to Sentinel Pass because of active grizzlies, so being solo may be tough, but often just hang out at the parking lot and wait for another group and ditch them at the pass if they are useless. Then hook up with the swedish bikini team for the hike out, they often lurk in our hills.

Never used a guide so cannot recommend one, but Yamnuska is legendary and has a stable of world class (and famous) guides. https://yamnuska.com Not sure what kind of experience you are seeking with your guided trip? Quality rock, alpine ice, ridge or face climbing or wilderness? Guides will typically only guide wilderness summits that are easy. Road accessed peaks are their bread and butter. For alpine ice, face or ridge, cannot beat the easy access of Mt. Athabasca in southern Jasper. Mt. Fay, above Lake Louise has a great hut, Mt. Victoria and Lefroy are classic easy snow/ice climbs, but likely too icy in August to be fun. Rock climbing has many options, good choices are Castle Mountain (Brewer Buttress is an awesome 12 pitch 5.6 alpine rock route, guided often), Edith Cavell (east ridge 5.3) near Jasper townsite and their are many moderate longer multi pitch sport routes in the Bow Valley between Canmore and Lake Louise. Mt. Cory has a big collection of moderate to hard routes, super short access and some of the most solid limestone in Banff. Mt. Louis has a few classic routes (Kain route 5.6 is great).

If shopping for guided routes, the David Jones book gives endless options.

Good luck, hope you make it up and have fun. You know it can snow anytime up here? August can be bone dry and hot, or snow every day, keep your fingers crossed.

Cheers
OSWB

Dow Williams and William Marler, fellow SPers, have many great pages for the area. Dow is an avid climber. I was there twice and only did scrambles but the ridge walk on Mount Lady Macdonald looked pretty intense. GREAT views of Canmore and the Bow Valley. Easy approach for Mount Rundle East

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM-70sCtFtk[/youtube]
http://www.summitpost.org/mount-lady-macdonald/153029
http://www.summitpost.org/mount-rundle-east-end/153019
http://www.summitpost.org/users/dow-williams/19503
http://www.summitpost.org/users/william-marler/9

easy, quick and dirty..
http://www.explore-mag.com/The-10-Best- ... ar-Calgary