mountainsloth Posted September 15, 2011 Posted September 15, 2011 Trip: Bugaboos - NE ridge Bugaboo, McTech R variation, Wildflowers Date: 9/10/2011 Trip Report: First trip to the Bugaboos and I gotta say there is a lot of hype out there about this place, but... it really sucks. I mean just look at this place! Nothing but snow and rock.... bleh The temps were only around 70 during the day and 40 at night, no one was there to keep camp interesting, and all they have at camp is running water, gear hangs, food lockers, and outhouses. Sheesh! I mean, look at the view from the outhouse.... really? In all seriousness, the Bugaboos have been a dream destination of mine for years and it exceeded my expectations on all levels. Too bad its so freaking far away from Seattle! Here was our itinerary for 5 days. Tuesday: Drive 12 hours from Seattle 3:30pm to 4am Wed Am. Sleep in the parking lot for 4 hours. Wednesday: Hike in with way too much food and gear. Promptly pass out assuming I was just dreaming the whole thing anyway. Thursday: Wake to another perfect high pressure day in the Bugs and climb the classic NE ridge of Bugaboo Spire as our intro. We got off route on the approach ending up on extremely sketchy-loose terrain, but quickly find our own way around. lead a crack, traverse, and rappel to a ledge. traverse the ledge, scramble to the ridge. Not exactly textbook. We climbed the ridge avoiding both Chimneys via nicer, and harder cracks. pitch 1 I linked two pitches of fingers to hands in two corners with a 70 meter rope skipping the first chimney And Chris my partner skipped the second chimney via a twin finger and hand crack that climbs steeply to the left of it. Both are highly recommended and protect well. The upper ridge was cruiser and we reached the summit around 5pm. Summit shenanigans ensued... but we quickly realized we still had a ways to go before dark. Exposure! Down climbing... and a few rappels got us through the technical stuff Racing against the Sun! All said and done, we reached the Col just as it hit dark. Friday: Rest/crag day. We climbed McTech with the right variation start mostly because we bickered over who would lead the finger crack and the book said it was 4 long pitches instead of 6-7 for the Arete. The first pitch was a nice, stout off-width-fist-hands layback (excellent!) The second pitch followed a corner that was tricky but fun. The 3rd and fourth pitches were out of this world! hands through a roof? The climb flowed seamlessly and all that kept running through my head for those last two pitches was "This is the best climb I have ever done!" Physical, engaging, unique, one style after another, and great gear! I climbed to the anchors and starred at Chris. We didn't say a word, just sat in awe. Our silence was broken my fits of laughter almost to tears. What a joy. The approximate variation we took. The rappels went smoothly, high from a buzz of pure elation. We landed in camp fully amped. We planned on doing something easy for our last day but McTech charged us to find something more challenging, committing, and as beautiful as today's climb. Wildflowers sounded like it would it the bill. A guy who came to camp solo fed off of our excitement and he decided to join us for the next day as our photographer. Sweet! Saturday: We awoke early and ascended the Snowpatch/Bugaboo Col. Wildflowers follows a corner system on the West face of Snowpatch Spire and is sustained 5.9/5.10a climbing for 9 pitches. Our only complaint is that we climbed most of it in the shade. Chris and I swapped leads through the corner system while Ky took photos: All are his below. Feeling a bit frozen, it was nice to reach the upper portion of the climb and hit sun. The last two pitches were exciting. The book talks of following a solitary crack to the summit. Hmmm... oh well, looks fun! We summited, celebrated with echoes and monkey calls to climbers on Bugaboo Spire, then prepared to descend the easiest and quickest rappels I have ever done in the mountains. goofing while simul-rappelling. Once off rappel we scrambled and crossed the glacier with rock shoes with an exciting runout down the icefall below. Feeling fully satisfied with how the climb went, we basked in the West facing Sun and strolled across the glacier. A few more rappels down the Col got us past the Crevasses and slid the rest of the glacier. The next day, camp was empty on a perfect Sunday... go figure. We slowly made our way back to the trailhead already thinking of when we will return to this magic land of granite and ice. Gear Notes: Doubles .3-4 inches, a set of nuts. 10 alpine draws Double ropes are helpful but not necessary depending on the route. A single 70M rope saved a lot of sketchy downclimbing from rappels on almost every route we descended. Approach Notes: Watch out for cattle on the way in and out! Quote
Pete_H Posted September 15, 2011 Posted September 15, 2011 Nice! Lucked out with the wedder. I climbed Wildflowers more than ten years ago and it was good but rather licheny. It sure looks like its cleaned up a bit by now. Quote
hippos_are_evil Posted September 15, 2011 Posted September 15, 2011 That 2nd to last picture is very cool. Almost looks like a cartoon Quote
jordansahls Posted September 15, 2011 Posted September 15, 2011 Awesome! I was out there for a week in the middle of August, that place is unreal. Your photos make me want to go back sooo bad! Quote
AlpineK Posted September 16, 2011 Posted September 16, 2011 Lots of development at Applebee. [img:center]http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/IMG_0732_2000x1126_.jpg[/img] In the 80s there was no building. Everybody at camp could instantly see whether the thrown was occupied and by who. At least they preserved most of the view with the window. Nice climbing pictures Quote
counterfeitfake Posted September 16, 2011 Posted September 16, 2011 Yeah, there are actually 2 outhouses now, I don't remember when the second one went in. I will say I like having the walls there, when the cold wind is blowing. Quote
mountainsloth Posted September 17, 2011 Author Posted September 17, 2011 Yea, Wildflowers was still a bit dirty, but that just added to the feel. Still highly enjoyable. I was kind of happy to see a lot of alpine plants sticking around that climb. It seems obvious that the climb was named after these plants that you have to occasionally stand on and use as hand holds. Too much traffic and they might disappear leaving people to wonder why it was named wildflowers. Quote
mountainsloth Posted September 17, 2011 Author Posted September 17, 2011 @ Feck: Yea the amenities up there are pretty well established. My partner and I both agreed that Applebee seemed developed just enough to rid the camp of major issues while still leaving the place as undisturbed as possible. Quote
david c Posted September 21, 2011 Posted September 21, 2011 awesome report! i laughed aloud when i saw the picture of the top of wildflowers. we had the same head-scratch there. and all the cracks were rounded and dirty. your picture captured it perfectly. good route though! Quote
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