The Evan Thomas Creek Story
Now that Winter is here Michelle and I start to think about changing Adventure Saturdays from trail running to ice climbing. The Evan Thomas Creek Trail is home to a number of winter climbing destinations. The weather has been unseasonably warm so we were not optimistic about an early start to climbing season. Chantilly Falls is a relatively easy multi-pitch climb that I have done a couple of times, once on my own and the other with Michelle.
It is on our list of climbs we want to lead this year so we thought we would take the day and go explore the area to see if any ice was in. Spoiler Alert: There wasn’t any ice in. However, the area is beautiful and it was a gorgeous day for a walk in the mountains. We have not run this trail in the summer time but will be back to do so.
There are a few ice climbs in that region. Chantilly Falls, Moonlight, Snowline and the Green Monster. We did not go as far as the Green Monster and viewed Moonlight and Snowline from a distance. No ice on any of the climbs we saw.
We ended up meeting some climbers in the parking lot. They were clearly more optomistic than we were as they had all their gear and were hoping to get a climb in. We ended up walking in with them and really enjoyed their company. We were so enthralled in conversation that we ended up taking a left instead of a right at the first intersection to get to Chantilly Falls.
The good news is that it was a spectacular day and we got where we wanted to go but took a more “scenic” route. We will absolutely be back to run this one.
Getting There
The trail head was about 45 minutes out of Canmore. Taking highway 1 back toward Calgary taking the Kananaskis exit. Google Maps Directions Here.
Runnability
This one would be quite runnable in the summer time. The valley is gorgeous and the terrain relatively flat. The elevation profile is a little misleading as the total gain is pretty minimal overall. We did a fairly short loop as our primary objective was to gather beta on Chantilly Falls. When we go back in the summer time I am sure we will explore further. There is a seemingly endless trail network in the area. We could have kept going up the Evan Thomas creek trail for what appears to be another 10km or more out so we could probably put together a nice long run route in the area.
