Bugaboos Provincial Park,
British Columbia, Canada
August 1-3, 2024
After spending a few days at Kootenay National Park in Canada, Laura and I
loaded up and headed for Bugaboo Provincial Park, a place both of us both
have wanted to visit for many years. On our way, we stopped by the store to
buy some wire fencing to protect the car from porcupines while it was
parked at the trailhead and we were on our way. Arriving at the end of
the long dirt road to a full parking lot we parked the Jeep and promptly wrapped it in wire to protect it from the porcupines.
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| Justin in front of our vehicle wrapped with wire fencing to protect it from porcupines |
Soon after, we were off
hiking on the 4 mile approach trail to the Conrad Kain hut and eventually, our
camping area a few hundred feet above-the high camp. Passing by, Laura and I spent a few minutes exploring the inside the European style
climbers hut before paying our campground fees and continuing on to
high camp.
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| The Kain hut in Bugaboo Provincial Park |
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| Justin at the Kain hut |
As you hike in along the approach trail, the glaciers are amazing and the granite peaks rise abruptly out of the Earth. The scenery is amazing and we already
feel like we’re in a special place.
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| Justin on the hike into camp in Bugaboo Provincial Park |
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| Laura on the hike into the Bugaboos |
Wandering around high camp for just a
few minutes we found a good tent platform and made our base camp
for the following few days. We didn’t have a certain plan in mind, but
we did know that we were not going to climb anything hard as we had only
brought approach shoes with us.
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| Justin at our tent in the Applebee Dome Campground |
After talking with other climbers
at camp, we determined that the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col was slightly
dangerous due to rockfall, but that we would still consider ascending it rather than
going around the entire Snowpatch Spire to access our main objective for the first
day, Pigeon Spire. The West Ridge on Pigeon Spire is reportedly the premier 5.4 climb in the world and was definitely worth checking out.
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| The Bugaboo Snowpatch col with climbers at the top |
We woke up early the next morning and got started
towards the Bugaboo Snowpatch col. Our plan was to go around Snowpatch Spire if there were other people in the col, but when we got
to the base of the snowfield, we were the only ones on the snow. This is good because now we
wouldn’t have to be as concerned about rockfall danger from climbers
above us. Starting up the snow, we climbed as fast as we could to get
through the objective danger of rockfall. The bottom third of the snowfield was firm snow and easy climbing, but the top150' was loose rock combined with ice.
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| Justin scrambling through the loose rock and ice near the top of the Bugaboo Snowpatch col |
It took us just under thirty minutes to reach the top of the BS col and escape the objective dangers below us. We could see a clear walking path across the Vowel Glacier towards Pigeon Spire and were very surprised that there were no
other climbers headed that way. We thought that we would have been standing in line on
this climb, but it turns out we were the only ones on the mountain that
morning.
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| Laura on the Vowel Glacier with Pigeon Spire in the upper left and the Howser Towers in the upper right |
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| Justin on the Vowel Glacier with a beautiful sunrise in the background |
As the sun arose at our backs, we hiked across the upper Vowel Glacier for about 20 minutes to the base of Pigeon Spire's West Ridge. Changing from boots to approach shoes, we climbed the west ridge unroped until the final summit pitch. The climbing is clean
and never too hard, always beautiful and fun, and perhaps one of the most
enjoyable routes Laura I have ever climbed together. There were smooth slabs,
excellent cracks and amazing exposure the entire way. The route is
improbable to reach such a beautiful summit and a beautiful area. Reaching the summit, we took some photos before making two rappels off of the summit and rejoined the route that we then down climbed back to our gear.
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| Justin starting up the west ridge of Pigeon Spire |
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| Justin on the west ridge of Pigeon Spire |
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| Laura climbing the west ridge on Pigeon Spire |
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| Laura on Pigeon Spire |
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| Justin on the summit of Pigeon Spire |
It was 9 am and we had completed our main objective for the day. I
recommended we head over and climb Bugaboo Spire via the 5.6 Kain route,
since it was right along our way back to camp. Veering off to Bugaboo Spire at the top of the BS Col, we quickly found broken rock and easy
but loose climbing.
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| Justin simul-climbing up Bugaboo Spire |
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| Justin on the Kain route on Bugaboo Spire |
The route was mostly straightforward climbing with just
a single pitch that tested Laura and I in our approach
shoes. We summitted at 12:30 and spent time looking down and around at
the surrounding peaks and glaciers, continuing to awe at the expansive
beauty of the Bugaboos.
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| Justin on the summit of Bugaboo Spire |
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| Laura and Justin on the summit of Bugaboo Spire |
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| Justin checking out the summit register on Bugaboo Spire |
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| Laura on the summit of Bugaboo Spire |
Rappelling the route, the descent went pretty
quickly and Laura and I were back at the BS col at 3:00. We rappelled the
upper section of the col and down climbed the lower half as quickly
as we could to once again escape the objective rockfall danger from
above.
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| Justin rappelling the Bugaboo Spire |
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| Laura setting up a rappel on the ridge of Bugaboo Spire |
We took the long way back to camp, exploring the lakes below Crescent Spire and eventually making it back to camp to relax and take in
the beauty for the remainder of the evening before retiring to our
sleeping bags in the early evening.
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| Enjoying the views and relaxing at camp |
For our second day of climbing, we chose a short route called Lion's Way on Crescent Tower. The approach from camp was short, perhaps only 30
minutes and the climb was excellent quality crack and slab climbing.
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| Justin climbing Lion's Way on the Cresent Tower |
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| Laura and Justin at the top of Cresent Tower in front of the Donkey's Ears |
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| Laura and Justin on Cresent Tower with the Bugaboo Spire behind |
We
summitted Crescent Tower in short work and upon making our way back to
camp decided to add in the 4th class route to the summit of Eastpost Spire, the peak
that towers high above and directly behind camp. The scramble was enjoyable
and Laura and I enjoyed the short side trip.
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| Laura scrambling up Eastpost Spire |
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| Laura and Justin on the summit of Eastpost Spire |
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| View of the campground from Eastpost Spire |
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| Laura back at camp with Eastpost Spire behind |
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| The crazy rock cairn that we called the campground guardian |
At camp that night we both
spoke about returning to the amazing place and what routes we’d like to
climb- the more difficult classics on Bugaboo and Snowpatch Spires as
well as something else on Marmolada. The following morning, we packed up
camp and hiked out to the car. We drove back to camp to meet up with Grandma and Hazel and were pleased with our 2.5 days in the bugaboos.
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| Justin hiking out through the beautiful wildflowers |
