Purgatory Peak

Summit Elevation (m): 2764
Trip Date: July 04, 2025
Elevation Gain (m): 1300
Round Trip Time (hr): 7.5
Total Trip Distance (km): 20
Quick ‘n Dirty Rating: Class 3+ – you fall, you sprain or break something.
Difficulty Notes: A surprisingly scenic and fun, moderate scramble – a “mini Fisher Peak“.
Technical Rating: SC6+
GPS Track: Gaia
Map: Google Maps

In 2024 I had the terrible idea to bike up the Evan Thomas Creek trail not only once with Wietse for a lovely scramble of Shoulder Peak (we went WAY TOO FAR on the bikes) but again with Sara on another delightful scramble up Perdition Peak. Despite the awful bike approach up a deteriorating “trail” (it doesn’t deserve that label), the scrambles were both really great. So naturally I was back for more on July 4th 2025, only a day after spending 30 kilometers riding the relatively smooth and easy Little Elbow Trail on my new (to me) Salsa Cutthroat gravel bike and another 8 on foot ascending the obscure Janelea Mountain.

When Doug Lutz and Kane Keller did the traverse from Purgatory to Perdition Peak in September 2023, they had the peaks mixed up thanks to a mislabeled photo in David Jones’ climber’s guide, “Rockies South” (page 44). When Sara and I did Perdition Peak in 2024 I originally intended to tag on Purgatory but we didn’t feel like it when we got there, so we didn’t. I don’t have many close (to Calgary) peaks left that hold my interest, so I was OK with leaving it for another time. As on Janelea the day before, I was excited to try my gravel bike on a MUCH mankier approach to see how it would handle it.

Once again I left an empty parking lot, this time an hour later at 08:00. Hey! I need my beauty sleep so no judgement from the armchair warriors please. 😉 Typical for the Evan Thomas Creek Trail, everything started fast ‘n easy on the Salsa. As on the previous day, it was a joy to climb on the bike – it’s so dang light and responsive! Also typical for this “trail”, things quickly deteriorated. Except this time was even worse than either of the two 2024 approaches. Thanks to a huge rain and snow event a week or so earlier, there were a number of trees fallen over the trail and many more were encroaching on it due to bending caused by snow.

As the angle of the trail ramped up, so did my frustration with the horrid conditions. They were SO F_CKING BAD. Seriously. They sucked. The falling and encroaching trees were bad enough but the roadbed was also much worse than a year previous – likely due to the huge dump of moisture that damaged all the trees. Rubble and boulders on the trail threatened to throw me off the bike even on ascent – I shuddered thinking of the return ride. Oh well. Nobody said the trail would be improved year-over-year and I was here now, so I pedaled as best I could, passing some familiar landmarks from the year before.

Just before the bike drop at the end of the “rideable” track things got somehow even worse. Put it this way, I was more than happy to lock the Salsa to a tree and start bushwhacking the SW ridge of my peak. And then a miracle occurred. After a very short, intense bushwhack right off the “trail”, the forest thinned dramatically and the off-trail hiking was much more enjoyable and much less “forest” than the trail behind me was! Funny how that happens.

After a very steep grunt through thinning forest I found myself on the edge of an outcrop leading ever higher with great views opening up behind and beside me. It was hard to believe that I had to get higher than Perdition Peak’s west summit, but that is what the maps were telling me. From treeline I continued up on the ridge crest until things started to ramp up, or in this case, “down”.

The 3 or 4 severe drop-offs along Purgatory’s upper SW ridge took me a little by surprise, but they really shouldn’t have. Doug mentions some difficulties on his trip report and it’s a good thing I quickly read it the night before so I had some inkling of things to come.

The first drop-off I circumvented on climber’s left, but I should have gone right. The next few were all avoided on climber’s right (descending around to my right on the way up) but were all kind of convoluted but obvious to an experienced scrambler if that makes any sense.

I wasn’t expecting the level of complexity or route finding, especially after a day of it on Janelea the day before, but on hindsight it was engaging and fun. I could tell by the summits of Perdition that I had a ways to go yet, so I simply slowed down and enjoyed the hands-on stuff. I enjoyed all the height losses at each downclimb a little less but considering this peak is in the Fisher Range, it makes sense that it started reminding me of that peak after the 4th downclimb.

Finally I found myself on the final ascent to the summit. I crossed out “Perdition” and changed the name in the register to “Purgatory” as per Doug’s wishes (not to mention reality) and took in the great Kananaskis views in every direction. As usual for me on most summits, gazing too long at all the other peaks I’ve done over the past quarter century is a tiring affair! I was much later than expected thanks to the complexity of the route, so I texted Hann that I’d be a bit later than planned before starting back down the route.

As usual, climbing up all the difficulties was much easier than downclimbing them blind and my little cairns on route helped speed things up a bit too.

From the last bump along the ridge it was a long, fast, straightforward hike back to the horrid excuse-of-a-trail waiting patiently like an evil thing far below.

Sure enough. It not only looked evil, it acted it too! My Cutthroat did an amazing job with the mess of a “trail” but holy cow was it rough and clogged up with trees in spots. The trick was to go much slower than I’m used to from my full suspension mountain bike. The much lighter gravel bike bounces a LOT more on technical terrain and needs different handling as a consequence. Once I figured that out it was a much more pleasant ride, but “pleasant” should not be the word you focus on here. Trust me.

Just over 7 hours from the parking lot I was back, taking a little longer than I expected. Do I recommend Purgatory? Yep! I certainly do. It’s harder than either Perdition or Shoulder Peak were but engaging and fun in similar ways. Do I recommend the approach to Purgatory? Nope. I can’t in good conscience recommend that crappy trail for anyone, but unfortunately unless you own a jet pack, it’s your only way in to a few great, highly recommended scrambles. What you do with this conflicting advice is entirely up to you.