[TR] Moderate Bugaboos 16-23 July 2016

[dave schultz]

Trip: Moderate Bugaboos 16-23 July

 

Date: 16-23 July 2016

 

Trip Report:

 

Ken and I have done a couple objectives together, the last big alpine one was our linkup of Nooksack Tower-Price Glacier-Shuksan in 2014. We decided on the Bugaboos for this year.

 

Day 1

 

Fly into Calgary, drive to Canmore, pack, last minute supplies.

 

Day 2

 

Drive to the trail head, approach with about 175 lbs of shit in 2:45, scouted the Bugaboo Snowpatch Col and refined some glacier travel skills.

 

Day 3

 

NE Ridge of Bugaboo Spire. We had three big factors working against us on this route: 1) time due to botching the approach to the Bugaboo-Crescent Col (we were WAY too far left, lots of shenanegans to get back on route), 2) leaving half of our food in the hut (oops), and 3) experiencing some variable weather (rain, sleet, hail, snow, fog, blue bird). The traverse from the North Summit to the South Summit was quite complex due to wet conditions and poor visibility. No issues on the Kain Route descent. Very long day - 19 hours hut-hut. We were the only party on the route and did not hear of any other party summiting any other spire. We wore some form of glove for every pitch on the route.

 

Day 4

 

SE Ridge to NW Ridge (up and over) Eastpost Spire as an active rest day. Easy, fun simul-climbing and soloing. Good practice. Perfect weather, but we needed an easy day. We thought we were the only party on the route, only to find out later that another party was somewhere behind us, but we never heard them. Great views of the higher peaks and of Applebee Dome and the terrain on the north.

 

Day 5

 

We originally planned on the Snowpatch Route on Snowpatch Spire, but with the updates morning forecast and with the current weather outside we elected to shift the objective to Pigeon Spire's West Ridge. We found getting up the BS Col to be straightforward but we could see that the weather was starting to roll in. Between the top of the Col and the start of the route we got totally socked in with mostly frozen precipitation, but with a fair amount of liquid precip as well. Visibility was between 25 and 75 feet the whole time. We simul-climbed up and down the route in about four hours. We were the only party on the route, and did not hear of any other party summiting any other spire. We opted to use the Snowpatch rappel route in order to gain familiarity with it, it is at least 30-60 minutes slower than descending the BS Col. We got back to the hut, which was below the weather ceiling, dried clothes and gear, finished off all our booze, took baths and sun bathed. Having had a relaxing afternoon, we were ready for another big day. Fireball!!

 

Day 6

 

Snowpatch Route (SE Corner) on Snowpatch Spire. We did not get any updated weather forecast, so working with an old forecast we were hesitant to get on this highly committing route, we left the hut with a solid backup plan if the weather looked like a no-go. We moved slowly trying to let the weather make up its mind, and finally decided to go for it until we needed to make a decision about the ability to turn around with consideration to the prevailing weather conditions. After a while it appeared the weather would stay good enough to finish the route to the summit shifted into a higher gear. I thought the route seemed dirtier than the NE Ridge, but it probably get much less traffic. This route was definitely longer and felt much more committing based on the type of climbing compared to the NE Ridge. Rack-up to summit was only about nine hours and we spent a long time on the summit to give a guide and client plenty of time to make most (if not all) of the rappels to the glacier. It started raining after we got below the BS Col and we were about 14 hours hut-hut.

 

Day 7

 

Having misread the forecast (not reading: PERFECT WEATHER), and wanting a slightly easier day, we opted to do a 3rd and 4th class scramble to the summit of Crescent Spire and Whipping Post with the intention to traverse to Brenta and Northpost. The poor rock quality (loose choss) combined with the marginal reward of the traverse motivated us to modify our plan and simply descent Crescent Spire via the Whipping Post and back through the Eastpost-Crescent Col; this decision also allowed a guided party to continue to Brenta without another party on the route for rockfall/safety considerations. We took a large siesta on the descent to Applebee and then took a refreshing dip in the lake above Applebee (once we moved the iceburgs out of the way). The watch said about 5-degrees centigrade, but it felt colder.

 

Day 7-8

 

Once we realized out forecast reading mistake, and recognizing potential weather the next afternoon, we bounced some ideas back and forth and settled on an early evening (about 1.5 hrs from then) departure for the Hounds Tooth to Marmolata Traverse (with the option of adding the Pigeon Feathers and Pigeon Spire to the traverse). We left around 1815 (having been up for 12 hours already) and summited Hounds Tooth and reached the start of the East Ridge of Marmolata before the sun fully set (at 2230). With the clear skies during the day and the nearly full moon we knew we could have lots of ambient light - and we were right! Headlamps were only needed for the actual climbing and everything else was manageable with just the ambient light. We took it slow and easy, short pitching most of the route with a few sections of simul-climbing. We reached the Marmolata Summit at 0400, and it started getting progressively lighter out. The descent was simple, with only one rappel station needing to be beefed up, and only needing to add one station to further reduce the chances of getting a rope stuck while pulling it. A short nap at the Marmolata-Pigeon Spuire Col, and some bergshrund shenanigans put us back at the hut before 0900 for a 27 hour day and around 14 hours hut-hut for the route. We ate as much of our remaining food as we could, then took a well earned mid-day nap.

 

Day 8

 

We awoke from out nap, continued to eat as much of our remaining food as we could, watched the crappy weather roll in, and packed our bags for the hike out the next morning.

 

Day 9

 

An easy hike out in the mist and fog was rewarded with burger and beer in Radium, followed by a refreshing dip in the Radium Hot Springs pools and hot tub, then a drive to Calgary where we had another big dinner with plenty of beer, followed by an uneventful drive to the airport for the red-eye back to New York and South Carolina.

Edited July 25, 2016 by dave schultz

[dave schultz]

Set Up Day in Canmore and the Approach:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2016 by dave schultz

[dave schultz]

Day 2: Bugaboo Spire via NE Ridge:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2016 by dave schultz

[dave schultz]

Day Three: Eastpost Spire via SE Ridge and down NW Ridge:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2016 by dave schultz

[dave schultz]

Day Four: Pigeon Spire West Ridge and Relaxation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2016 by dave schultz

[dave schultz]

Day Five: Snowpatch Route on Snowpatch Spire:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2016 by dave schultz

[dave schultz]

Day Six: Crescent Tower to Whipping Post to the Hut:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dave schultz]

Day Six - Seven: Hounds Tooth to Marmolota Traverse:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dave schultz]

Final Notes:

 

Like everyone, we planned on Beckey-Chouinard but heard that it was not really in good shape with the recent rain/snow and no one had done it for quite some time. While we were on our final night traverse we saw lights rappelling form the S Howser summit, so someone read the forecast right and made a go for it. We brought a sleeping pads, a small jetboil, and tent (footprint and fly) in case we wanted to bivy at the start or mid-route; we never ended up using any of these items. Next time I might not even bring the pad and the tent, and just bivy in a puffy jacket (this was our plan on the night traverse).

 

We also planned on Sunshine Crack, but we never really get a chance to get on it. We also heard that it was still a little early and cold for that route.

 

Based on Sunshine Crack being on the list, we brought a pretty huge rack up to the hut (double up to BD C4 5, plus an old-school Camalot 3.5 and 4). We never left the hut with anything bigger than the 3.5 and found the 3.5 to be very useful and many of the routes, especially NE Ridge of Bugaboo Spire.

 

We brought regular mountain boots and approach shoes. Lots of people running around with approach shoes on the glacier, but we found the added security of the mountain boots justified the added weight. If we had done Beckey-Chouinard I would have worn my approach shoes to keep the weight as low as possible, but for all the other routes the added weight was of no consequence. We saw basically every type of boot imaginable up there, the Sportiva Trango was probably the most common.

 

We experienced some precipitation basically every day, but never got totally shut down with sustained or continuously heavy precip at any point. The precip was probably 50/50 snow/rain and I found the snow to be better than the rain.

 

Lots of fully gloved climbing. Snowpatch Route was probably the only route that had a large amount of glove-less climbing, and that was primarily due to the weather was actually nice enough to not need them. Ken climbed most of Snowpatch with gloves on. We used combinations of full gortex hardshell gloves (thin liner or no liner), thin winter softshell gloves, thin gardening gloves, and tip-less leather Metolious gloves. I usually brought all four pairs with me, and the conditions/terrain would dictate which gloves I would use.

 

We brought a TON of food with us, and actually ended up eating most of it. I used a 125 liter haul bag that weighed close to 100 lbs. It was MISERABLE on the epproach, but for 2:45 of shittiness we got some serious lux stuff for the next 7 days - totally worth it. With that, there were some serious backcountry chefs at the hut, I forgot to ask them how to they keep the meat and cheese from going bad (unless it is special stuff that is designed to be at room temp or if they just risked it ...).

 

There is legit electricity at the hut. We brought lots of batteries and device chargers (I had about 20,000ma available for the seven days, not knowing exactly what would be available there). These were basically dead weight, I will certainly bring less electrical stuff next time.

 

I had a 50-degree sleeping bag in the hut, and it was too warm. I might consider bringing a sleeping bag liner next time.

 

I brought a lot of variable clothes and layers. I ended up using mostly everything, but could have scaled back a little bit. I never once used my wind shirt (and I am a huge wind shirt fan), I found the hardshell jacket to be more appropriate and useful with the variable weather. I you had more consistently good weather the wind shirt might be a good play.

 

On our entire trip we never saw another person on our route, and only on two occasions did we see another party. The guide and client on top of Snowpatch and the guide and clients near Whipping Post en route to Brenta.

 

Our main goal was longer routes, preferably grade IV and we were less interested in the grade III and below; though they did fill in the gaps between the big days and during the questionable weather. McTech and the rest of Crescent Spire will definitely be on the list for next time.

Edited July 25, 2016 by dave schultz

[cfire]

Great job on getting it done with iffy weather. Good choice on not trying Sunshine. You want some serious warmer temps before freezing on that ironically named route

 

Final Notes:

 

 

 

With that, there were some serious backcountry chefs at the hut, I forgot to ask them how to they keep the meat and cheese from going bad (unless it is special stuff that is designed to be at room temp or if they just risked it ...).

 

 

 

I've watched the CMH heli drop a box of supplies at the hut before, where they were stashed in the closet in an icebox. We got to experience steaks, hamburgers, lasagna and every other gourmet food being eaten in front of us for a week...good times.