Sundance Ridge

Over at least the past decade, every time I drive back along Hwy #1 through Banff I wondered about a prominent peak that often looks very ski friendly.

As Phil Richards and I drove past it yet again after our Drummond Icefield trip, I asked him about it. “Oh”, he said, “I think Geoff Hardy did that one a few years ago. It’s called Sundance Ridge”. Dang it Phil! Why didn’t I ask you about it sooner?

Upon arriving home I immediately researched the trip and found a Facebook and Strava post from Geoff who followed a 2008 Ramblers route.

Only after adding Geoff’s track to Gaia did I realize I also had a track from Devon from 2025 which I’d spotted and uploaded from Strava. I wasn’t about to follow Devon’s 5th class route to Sundance Peak but his approach to the ridge sounded like fun so I planned an ascent via Devon’s route and descent via Geoff’s route.

Now all I needed was a partner. As usual, Wietse was keen and we made plans to try it out. Smoke was almost guaranteed to obstruct our views but we decided the route itself was still worth it, despite the haze.

I never could figure out where the Brewster Creek approach went and I didn’t care enough to scout it out so after we parked in the lot just off the Sunshine Ski road I was surprised when Wietse started riding towards the climbing cliffs nearby. Wait - what? We had to bike north from the lot? I assumed that we’d be riding south, up the creek running right near the parking area. Even more strange, as we cycled on a wide, newly maintained road past the bluffs, we were riding down the creek - not up the creek as I’d also assumed. Strange times when you don’t research a route! 🙂

After crossing a massive bridge over Brewster Creek and cycling a bit further downhill we turned a tight corner and everything finally started to make sense as we finally turned things around and started uphill.

Rumors from the previous reports had the road listed as “rough” and indeed, the steeper parts were pretty beat up from a combination of horse traffic to Sundance Lodge and heavy rains. Honestly though? Wietse and I commented more than once that compared to something like Canary Creek riding, this was almost a highway. It’s all about perspective. 🚵

As we neared Devan’s ascent gully there were a few really bad sections of trail that had us walking our bikes. About an hour and 9kms into our day we locked the 2-wheel steeds to a tree and started up an obvious drainage, happy to be on our trail runners and wondering about the route ahead.

It didn’t take long for us to wonder if we’d regret our route choice as the creekbed closed in around us and we started to thrash around on loose rocks underfoot and willows in our faces. Thankfully this didn’t last long and soon we were back to more open (but still narrow) terrain stretching out ahead.

As we continued up the drainage, terrain to our right looked awfully steep! We hoped that Devon’s “moderate” rating would hold for us as we started up a steep, narrow gully on a mix of slabs and loose debris.

Thankfully the gully (more of a crack in places) was mostly dry as running water or snow would make things much more complex.

There were a few steep steps that gave us pause but in general we stuck right in the gully / crack until encountering a lingering snow patch high up on the route. Wietse went climber’s left and I stuck near the upper snow patch (too hard to actually utilize) on Devan’s route line but both lines worked well. We took our time and enjoyed the relatively cool day - despite obvious smokey haze obstructing views back down over Brewster Creek. Finally, 3.5 hours into our day, we surmounted the north ridge just under a high point and hiked towards it in a stiff breeze.

The summit of Sundance Ridge looked sufficiently far from our first high point that we didn’t linger there long - it’s not like we had views anyway. After some interesting scrambling along the ridge and just off of it to keep things easy to moderate we arrived at an obvious crux.

A vertical cleft about 8 feet high led down to easier terrain. We searched around a bit for a bypass to this unexpected difficulty but couldn’t find anything that wasn’t very obviously any easier or safer. Devon’s track seemed to go right along this section so I lowered myself into it, using one side for my back and the other my feet and stemming directly down it.

Any time you’re doing a full body stem I would argue the route isn’t really “moderate” anymore, but I did find it rather fun.

Wietse slipped a little on his way down and found things a little less “fun” than I did, but he made it out alive so all was good. We were on edge for the next few bumps along the ridge, wondering what other challenges this route might pose! Not many as it turned out.

Every time the crest thinned out or became slow travel we simply found routes below, usually to our right following obvious goat paths.

Just over 4 hours from the car we arrived at another high point, which dropped significantly towards the col with Sundance Ridge.

Despite looking far, the descent to the col went quickly, as did the re-ascent to the summit. Within 40 minutes of the last high point we were on the windy summit

• again with very disappointing views thanks to wildfire smoke.

The traverse over to Sundance Peak looked terrifying in sections and we weren’t tempted one bit to even bother trying it.

I wanted to know if I could see Sundance Lodge from another high point along the ridge towards the peak and Wietse waited at the col for me to check it out.

Alas, I couldn’t see very much of the Brewster Creek valley and never did see the lodge despite the fact that it was directly below my position on the ridge.

So far today had been simply good Rockies biking, hiking, scrambling and off trail adventure as so many hundreds of trips before. As we started down an obvious huge scree and rubble bowl to a creek far below, we had no idea that things were about to take a turn…

…and that turn was most definitely NOT for the better!

After getting home, I realized that what made the trip go from a solid 4/5 on ascent to a 0.4/5 on descent was the simple fact that we knew more than the two other parties who both ascended and descended the same route. After descending a very straightforward upper rubble bowl on loose scree, hard scree and some snow patches, we transitioned into a small creek below.

I’d noticed already when planning the trip that Geoff’s GPS track veered strangely high, climber’s left of the creek and realized the creek must harbor some horrible things in order for this to happen. After reading the Rambler’s report more closely I knew why Geoff took this line. It reads in part,

To get to the peak it is necessary to get past a wall of vertical strata that persists along the entrance to the upper valley. It seemed probable that the stream would flow through a canyon and we would find impassable walls there. We therefore opted to climb up to the north of the stream to a weakness in the vertical cliffs. At the top, we had a short break then traversed into the upper valley on a faint animal trail. The trail took us across some pretty meadows…

Wait. Does the words “It seemed probable” mean that anyone has actually confirmed that the stream flows through impassable walls to the upper rubble bowl? Hmmm. If anyone else ever attempts this bloody route you might owe yourself and the scrambling community a huge favor and find out with your own two eyes! 👀

I won’t go into too much detail, but we didn’t find more than a few smatterings of animal trails on descent and because we weren’t expecting a hot, manky, slippery traverse (we were in trail runners on very steep terrain) - we thought it sucked. The traverse lasted longer than we expected too - staying above problematic cliffs dropping into the creek below.

Eventually we plunged down through reasonable forest back to the Brewster Creek Trail and then walked the kilometer or so back to our bikes. It sure was nice to be in the shade again as the sun was cranking up the heat now that we were no longer subject to summit breezes.

The ride back to the parking lot was pretty quick despite some really rough sections. I was glad to be on my full suspension mountain bike for this one. Apparently I rode right past a curious black bear - Wietse saw it from behind me and had to talk it off the trail.

Our round trip time surprised us. We expected a shorter day based on the stats. Due to smoke, route complexities and some slow, careful route finding, you should probably add some buffer to your expected time if / when you ever attempt this one yourself. We certainly solved the question about skiing Sundance Ridge. Despite the beautifully angled upper mountain, the approach would not only be hellish on the snow sticks, it would be very dangerously exposed to some huge avalanche terrain. #nothanks.