Canyon Creek Ice Caves

Canyon Creek Ice Caves – March 7, 2009

Roundtrip time: 8 hours

Hiking with Mark.

A shockingly good trip! We were on our way to the Kananaskis Lakes area when Mark suggested we detour to Elbow Valley and check out of the ice caves of Canyon Creek. With a storm system coming in from the west, we might be lucky enough to escape the worst of it by staying in the Front Ranges. Not only did we stay out of the storms way (for most of the day, anyway), but the weather was outstanding throughout the morning hours.

Ignorant of the fact that Canyon Creek Road is now closed to public vehicle use, we had to hike the 6 km road. In retrospect, a bike approach would have been the way to go. The scenery en route to the caves was surprisingly good. The Canyon Creek valley is fairly wide but is also lined with beautiful cliffs of vertical rock. The approach to the ice caves was very easy, but we were lured in by more interesting rock faces on the far south end of Moose Mountain and took a direct route up to check them out. With dreary weather, these cliffs would have been impressive, but were stunning with the lighting of the Sun and a clear, blue sky behind them.

The first ice cave was not what we were expecting – there was far less ice and far more cave. In fact, the walk through to the back of the cave was actually eerie at times. A good flashlight would have been nice, but our headlamps were sufficient. Near the back there was a thick wall of wonderfully smooth ice that seems to exist year round. The most interesting part was turning off our headlamps, to the almost surreal experience of total blackness and total silence.

The second cave was narrow and very shallow but contained a chimney, with a rope dangling down. We considered trying to ascend the rope, but then chickened out, since we couldn’t be sure the rope would hold a fall. The rock was vertical and the huge conglomerate of massive chockstones above did not look particularly inviting.

The third cave was definitely the most challenging to get into, a river of thick ice providing passage. Even though the grade was very gentle, a slip on this ice would have been quite frightening and dangerous. Our crampons worked well, but the dulled picks of our alpine axes were no match for the thick ice. We resorted to more or less stemming our way into and out of the cave. This cave was fairly deep and narrowed considerably in short order. We continued for as far as our sleight frames would allow, but even a toddler would have had difficulty squeezing past the ice covered walls to gain the back of the cave.

On return, our curiosity about the aforementioned rope got the better of us and in we went. We strategically placed a sling that enabled me to ascend the rock without having to use the rope. Once above the first step, the rock was actually quite easy to ascend, though downclimbing it in scrambling boots would have been extremely difficult and very unnerving. I climbed to where the rope had been anchored and determined it would be okay to rappel down using the rope. There did appear to be a route continuing up, but it was very narrow and I didn’t feel like spending the night wedged in a chimney.

We then tried two separate gullies to gain the ridge of the southeast end of Moose Mountain. Both might have been doable but the deteriorating weather conditions and icy slopes prompted us to retreat and head home.

An outstanding day of unique scenery and exploration.

Hiking the approach road; the southeast end of Moose Mountain ahead; the Ice Caves are to the left