flyingkiwi1

I'm planning on heading up to the Bugs for ten days beginning this weekend, but today I heard third-hand that, due to diminished snow conditions, it now takes three raps to get down from the Snowpatch/Bugaboo col. Has anyone been up there lately? If so, can you confirm or deny that report? Thanks -- Ian

I climbed the West Ridge Sunday. The glacier's pretty broken up; I opted to circle below, approaching high and from the west. Thus, I gained the rock west of the couloir. I climbed a black dike for about 40' before traversing slightly left, then back right to gain the gully that dberdkinka mentions. This worked okay climbing down as well, although there is one move on the black dike (about 20' above the glacier) that might rate on a par with the hardest move on the ridge (the move around the piton two-thirds of the way up). Another party on the route that day took the couloir; they reported 5.9 climbing down there. -- fk