Summit Elevation (m): 2922
Trip Date: Sunday, July 14, 2024
Elevation Gain (m): 1620
Round Trip Time (hr): 9.5
Total Trip Distance (km): 37.5
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 2 – you fall, you sprain your ego or get laughed at.
Difficulty Notes: The scramble itself is fun and easy. Getting to it is neither of those things.
Technical Rating: SC5
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps
First Recorded Ascent: John Martin (solo), March 12 1975
I’ve biked up the Evan-Thomas Creek trail several times. The first was a 2006 ascent of Fisher Peak. The second was an ascent of McDougall and Old Baldy peaks in 2012. Now, in 2024 I was back again – apparently I’m a sucker for punishment! Black Ridge first came onto my radar quite a few years ago. Reading through David Jones Rockies South climber’s guide elevated it up my list again and gave it another (better) name – “Shoulder Peak”, named after a creek to the east. John Martin first recorded an ascent of this remote front range peak almost 50 years ago in 1975 (on skis in 9 hours return!) and it has seen very few ascents since then. As usual, my lazy attitude towards a peak on my list resulted in someone else beating me to it as a 2nd or 3rd recorded ascent. Also, as usual, it was Ephraim Roberts who did the beating. I seem to be chasing him up summits lately but it’s certainly not a new thing for me. To be fair – I’ve scooped him on a fair number of 2nd or 3rd recorded ascents over the years too. What an obscure and generally useless and pointless game us peakbaggers are playing at! 😉
Finally I decided that I was in the mood to chase another Kananaskis peak (2024 seems to be the year for that) and recruited Wietse for the attempt. After reviewing Eph’s track and seeing it was a 14-hour, 45km day I chose to replicate the first ascensionist’s route instead. Although he did it on skis, we would be using our usual weapon to approach the peak – our bikes. We had very little beta on the Evan-Thomas Trail beyond the 6-7km approach folks use to access the much more oft-ascended Fisher Peak. I remembered the ride being rough but doable from previous 2 rides but had no beta on its rideability after the 2013 floods wiped out so many decent approach trails and roads. I’ll sum it up for you right now in case you’re curious. Rideability beyond the Fisher Peak approach is a solid 0.1 out of 10, i.e., it’s not. At all. This trip is a rare case of me regretting pushing the ride further than any sensible humanoid would.
We started out from the Evan-Thomas parking lot after a quick chat with Joanna Ford and Ryan Lakhram who were planning to run Fisher Peak with Patrick Seymour who hadn’t arrived yet. I suspected they would pass us and indeed, they did as we messed about with a creek crossing after riding only a few kilometers. The biking started out great! A wide, easy trail led up the creek, staying far away from it which is why it’s still there I guess. After a steep section and only just over 5kms into the trip things got messy already. Honestly, I recommend leaving the bikes atop this section. Do yourself a giant favor. Trust me. Regardless of my advice to you, we obviously took the bikes MUCH further than this spot and I first started using the word, “bikewhack”.
After descending to the creek on a rough trail we ended up riding short sections of remaining track / road / trail that the 2013 floods didn’t destroy. It was tough, but we were determined to find more rideable sections that would justify lugging the bikes all the way in. Unfortunately the further we dragged, pushed, pedalled and swore our 2-wheel steeds up the ruined set of trails and tracks, the more reluctant we became to admit defeat. This might sound stoopid (and it obviously was on hindsight), but there is the concept of “sunk costs”. When it became exceedingly clear that the bikes were costing us way too much time and energy relative to what they were gaining us, we admitted defeat and left them in a wide section of the creek that was completely destroyed by the flood. We were roughly 7 or 8 kms in at this point. And then we changed our minds.
Seriously?! Yep. Naturally, as soon as we dumped the bikes we found ourselves across the ruined creek and hiking up a perfectly bikeable road again! Dammit. We hummed and hawed and once again the sunk costs bit us in the proverbial keister. It wasted 15 minutes, but we went back for the bikes and this time we were 100% committed to lugging them in until it was simply insane to take them further. In my mind this would be the ascent drainage under the peak and not a meter sooner. #thatdidnthappen #bikewhack #WTF
After a decent ride on an OK section of old road things took a turn. As you probably guessed by now, the “turn” wasn’t a good one. It’s all a blur as I type up this trip report, a blend of shitty road, shitty trail, shitty creek crossings, shitty mud and just plain “shit”. It was all shit man! Ironically if we were just hiking it wouldn’t have been that terrible at all. We’ve done FAR worse approaches – this one is all on “trail” – just not a bikeable one. A trail runner or an experienced hiker would consider this a very easy, reasonable approach with a few muddy areas, some bugs and a few water crossings. Pretty standard semi-obscure Rockies valley / trail travel. It was the bikes that made it feel so much worse. I don’t remember many specifics, but I do remember dragging, hauling, pushing, riding and carrying the bikes for what seemed like kilometers on end until Wietse finally threw in the towel. We’ve bikewhacked before (Mount Burns, Clearwater River, Ram River) but this was over the top, even for us.
At first I wasn’t happy. Remember – I had decided that once we turned back for the bikes the first time I was hauling my bike all the way to the ascent drainage no matter what. It didn’t take me long to calm down and realize he was probably right. We were still 4 kilometers (at least) from the ascent drainage and things were looking grim. We were on a muddy single track trail, not even a cutline or old road at this point. With all the roots, mud and sharp drops and turns it wasn’t even rideable terrain anymore. I was fairly certain that we’d be back on a cutline road again once we went over a pass in a couple of kms, but was it really worth a 1km ride to lug the bikes any further? I dropped my bike beside Wietse’s and we continued on foot.
Once we finally left the bikes behind, the day became much more friendly again. Like I said already, the trail was in great shape for hiking and easy to follow despite the residual flood damage. Obviously folks use this route for horses and hiking – it’s maintained enough for those activities. We passed through a lovely meadow tucked under the imposing east and north faces of Mount Evan-Thomas, Potts and Denny hosting a large horse camp. Once through this meadow the route did indeed become a cutline track again. Bikeable? Meh. Sort of, sort of not.
I was happy to be hiking at a full pace and didn’t regret dumping the bikes at this point anymore. We were surprised to meet two backpackers returning from a night at “the lake” (not sure which one). They seemed a little surprised to see us too. We begged them not to steal our bikes and they graciously agreed. Soon we were tramping SE down another cutline towards the bottom of our ascent drainage. 16.3 kms and just under 4 hours from the parking lot we finally turned up the SW drainage leading to our objective. (As you can see by the dismal ~4km/h pace, the bikes were highly questionable as to whether they saved any time or cost extra at this point – but we still had to return so there was hope.)
In a surprisingly good twist, the day was big-time salvaged by an awesome ascent. The next 3 hours were about as good as front range scrambles get. The drainage was open with zero bushwhacking and plenty of cool creek scenery and slab to keep things fun. After the lower creek ascent we continued up slabs and ribs, gaining height very quickly and opening stunning views behind us to the Opal Range and “Little Evan” Peak and Ripsaw Mountain surrounded by green alpine meadows and soaring rock faces.
Eventually I cut over to my left, gaining the SW ridge and scoping out the summit – still high above to the north. As I popped out on the upper south summit ridge the views of Fisher Peak, Romulus and Remus were stunning. A small lake tucked at the headwaters of Shoulder Creek completed the scene.
I made short work of the easy south ridge to the tippy top and a giant cairn with yet another bright pink Ephraim register sitting there to greet me. (It’s too bad I don’t drink or I’d likely hold the record for emptying the most free summit liquor in the Rockies!) Wietse joined me shortly and we enjoyed a few minutes at the top taking in the results of all our efforts. We agreed that if this route was easier to access it would be a deservedly popular peak. As it stands it never will be – but that’s OK too. With clouds building and rain in the forecast for the afternoon, we started back down the ridge.
Descent was quick and easy. We found more scree than slab on the way down. This really is a fantastic ascent once you’re done the approach. Slab on ascent, scree on descent – it doesn’t get better than that for a scramble. We hit the return trail less than 3 hours after leaving it, proving that the ascent route is very efficient.
The return was predictable if nothing else. We hiked easily back up the cutline and then the singletrack to the bikes. Things weren’t easy from there. I was frankly surprised by how stubborn we were on approach and just what kind of mess we managed to get the bikes through on approach. I do remember that I referenced my Mount Burns trip more than a few times. Unlike that trip, however, this one didn’t pan out quite as fortuitously for the bikes. Ah well. Sometimes you lose – and this was one of those times! Eventually we rode the short stretch of road back into more messed up creek vibes before FINALLY pushing up one last hill and arriving at the top of the hill where we should have left the bikes in the first place.
We completed the trip with a fast and fun 5km ride back to the parking lot arriving 9.5 hours after leaving. Not bad. Certainly quicker than Eph’s 14+ hours but he didn’t bike at all. Immediately after completing the trip I felt flustered with it. I thought it was messy and not really worth it. Going through my photos and video a few days later I realized that actually this was a wonderful adventure. Not all expeditions work out as neat and efficiently as planned. Our “bike until you cry” mantra was bound to bite us eventually and this was one of those times. Who cares? That’s what it’s all about. Nobody actually thinks plodding up and down all these piles of scree is worth anything do they? It’s all about getting out and experiencing another day of unknown trails, valleys, creeks and beautiful landscapes in the Canadian Rockies. If that takes a little blood, sweat and tears every once in a while it only makes the results that much more satisfying.
What do you mean by “no beta” ?
No first hand, recent reports on the trail. (Turns out I should have asked my friend Sara who could have provided some!)
Oh, right. Why don’t you just say “information” ? Is it more technical / specific to scramblng?
It’s a very common term in the mountaineering community. 🤷🏼
https://forums.clubtread.com/130-canadian-rockies/85729-black-ridge-gr-388-295-fisher-s1-5-a.html#/topics/85729
Was actually pretty enjoyable when we approached it from the Elbow valley, years ago.
That must be the trip report I remembered reading and couldn’t find back! 😏