We departed YYC early with the intention of beating the heat and managed to do just that, skirt uncomfortablly warm temps while trudging uphill. It was 18 C when we met earlier than anticipated at the trailhead and six of us started out on Thunder Mountain around 9 a.m. It didn’t take long to reach the shoulder and once there we could see the long ridge and summit off in the distance. At this point, high clouds allowed us to do the main leg work without intense heat, bonus. This is obviously a popular place as we followed a trail most of the way and the ridge provided good scrambling where tricky bits could easily be circumvented. Unique to this trip is that we saw peaks of the Continental Divide to the West and lush green foothills to the East with a good vantage of Oldman River below. We reached the top shortly after noon and stayed for almost an hour on a windless summit before retracing our steps back to the cars. Noteworthy is that only two of us had been to Thunder Mountain before. Thank you to for joining me Sim,Terry,Jeannette,Teresa,John, yours truly, Christine. Great company.

Group on the shoulder of Thunder Mountain.

John on the outcrop we bypassed.

Sim scoping out the ridge ahead.

Teresa and John on the summit ridge, Thunder mountain to the right.

Rambler's on the summit. Photo by Sim.

Chillin'

Fly Hill in the foreground, left, Tornado Mountain background, centre.

Sim and Christine on the summit.

Descending on the ridge.

Below the summit slope with lush foothills to the East.

Last view before heading into the trees. Oldman River below.