Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

July 28, 2013

2728m

Bugaboo Provincial Park, BC

The famous Bugaboos is one of the must-visit places in North America. I’d been to the nearby Rockypoint Ridge and got a head-on panorama view of these spires, but never been to the core area. Eastpost Spire is the most popular scramble objective and offers a good introduction. Although there’re other spires being just scrambling, our objective would be Eastpost only. This was the second day of our Invermere trip, after ascending 2000 vertical meters up Mount Nelson in the previous day. Eric had to get back to Invermere by 6pm and we were too tired to do an alpine start, so we definitely wouldn’t have the time for another spire.

Originally we were looking at an alpine start and getting the alpenglow photos on Hound’s Tooth and Snowpatch Spire, but we failed. We slept in till almost 7:30 in the morning. What an alpine start this was… Well, the views were still gonna be breathtaking anyway. The approach is very well maintained by the BC Parks. This is probably the “best” trail I’ve ever hiked, with ladders, concrete staircases, chains, and a ton of bridges over all water courses. It’s also one of the most scenic approaches I’ve ever done, with Hound’s Tooth and Bugaboo Glacier being right in front of us most of the way. The elevation gain is more than 700 meters and it took us quite a while to get there. The views were a bit foreshortened and we could see the Conrad Kain Hut being “right there”, but in fact it was quite a long way in.

We went into the hut and took a quick glance at the Bugaboo Climber’s Guide. We were also hoping to do another spire at this point so we had to know which one doesn’t have the 5th class rating on it. But for Eastpost, we didn’t actually need that guidebook since the route was simply following the west ridge up. We picked a trail towards Applebee Dome but somehow missed a turn and ended up going towards Bugaboo/Snowpatch col. We soon realized the mistake and left the trail. Should have just backtracked to the junction, but oh well, giant granite boulders punished us soon. It took us quite a while to negotiate the boulder field, and by the time we made to the Dome, the weather had already turned cloudy.

We aimed towards the obvious gully to gain the west ridge, and thankfully by the time we hit the ridge, blue skies showed up again. This ridge was probably one of the most enjoyable scrambles I’ve ever done. The rocks were not dead solid but still, they’re granite. With a ton of hands-on, but moderate scrambling only, we made to the base of a big slabs. I didn’t pay attention to the route so went up the slab, only found out we had to backtrack. So we down-climbed it and found a cairn marking the route on climber’s left side. After squeezing through this section we arrived at the summit block. I ditched the poles and backpacks here and changed to rock shoes. The shoes gave better grip and I picked a line following the ridge crest up. This route involves friction moves on very exposed terrain, but the rocks were dead solid. Eric went up the easier route which goes up the face, on his mountaineering boots. The views were needless to say, one of the best I’ve ever seen!!

After enjoying the summit view we started the descent. We both gonna down-climb Eric’s route. There’s a fixed rap station that one can use if bringing a rope. Probably due to the fact I didn’t come up this way, it took me quite a few tries to find holds at the crux move. It’s a bit awkward since the holds are rounded and down-sloping. I have to admit this part is a bit more challenging than expected, but not “that” difficult. We both enjoyed the climb. After descending the fun west ridge we met a group of 4 going up. We were very pleased to have the entire ridge to ourselves though, considering it’s a popular mountain in a hot area, and on a sunny Sunday.

By the time we made back to Applebee Dome, the weather moved in again, leaving only clouds behind. The hike out was a bit boring and long probably due to the heat. I slipped a couple times on the simple hiking trail…

Overall it’s one of the most beautiful areas I’ve ever seen and I’ll come back sooner than later. Now comes the lengthy (8 hours) drive. Eric did a great job driving to near Innisfail, and I took over for the rest back to Edmonton.