Thunder Mountain
Trip Report
Taking advantage of my temporary bachelor status, I took Wednesday July 09 2008 off work and drove down to the Crowsnest Pass area to do an interesting and short scramble - Thunder Mountain.
Why is it interesting? Well, it's the first mountain in the Canadian Rockies climbed by a non-native. I thought that was cool. Thanks to Bob Spirko's trip report and first hand accounts from Wietse and Keith, I knew that it was a good solo objective too. First of all, it's not a super-long trip. Secondly, it's not very difficult and thirdly, it's mostly a ridge walk so there's less chance of running into angry mammals on the way!
Since I left home pretty early, I managed to get to the trail head at around 08:15 under a pretty clear sky. The forecast didn't look to bright anywhere else in the Rockies, which is the other reason I drove 2 hours to do a short scramble. By 08:30 I was hoofing it up a thin trail to the crest of the ridge. The trick is to drive past the ridge and then turn around a park on the side of the road. You should spot a line trending up to the ridge crest from here. There's a plaque on a rock right near the top of this line.
From here to the summit there are multiple lines and many cairns to follow. I would rate some of the terrain as moderate but mostly it can be avoided. This was a terrific scramble on fairly decent rock with great views. The wind was actually much stronger on the ridge than closer to the summit which was a rare gift in the Crowsnest area!
I took almost an hour at the summit to take pictures, look around and catch a quick nap before heading back down. It was a considerably hotter descent than the ascent and the wind felt good.
A highly recommended scramble, especially if you're solo or looking for a short, leisure day. I took my time and was down within 5 hours.
There are more treed sections than I was expecting on the lower ridge - but a good trail made it easy to find the right way up.
Breaking out of the trees, this is the wonderful view of the ridge ahead.
View off the ridge looking back down at the ascent route.
Getting higher on the ridge. The rock was generally very solid till about this point and even then, I've had much, much worse!
Summit view, looking west with Crowsnest Mountain in the center of the photo.
Summit view looking back down the ascent ridge (last part of it) and north.
Looking south at the interesting terrain of the foothills backed up against the Rockies. There was also some atmospheric haze from the approaching cold front.
Vern on the summit of Thunder Mountain.
Telephoto of the helicopter landing area in the valley.
The infamous centennial display.
Another interesting shot of the atmosphere / prairie off to the southeast.
Crowsnest Mountain and Seven Sisters from the summit of Thunder Mountain.
Furtile cattle country.
Summit panorama (click to view full size).
Some parts of the ridge are more fun than others. It's always more fun to go over these parts than around them!
Couldn't resist a flower shot... ;-)
A fitting tribute to the Calgary Stampede, considering it was going on while I was enjoying some peace and quiet 200 km away!
This rock was kind of random. I also enjoyed the way the cloud kind of set up the shot.
Beautiful and peaceful alpine meadow on the way down the ridge.
A fitting tribute to someone who loved the outdoors.
