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Bugaboos , Itinerary Examples, Classic Routes:

Itinerary Examples for the Bugaboos (look below for route descriptions):

GLACIER TRAVEL / SCRAMBLING / Family ITINERARIES, 7 - 10hrs
4 days, up to 5 participants / guide
Day 1: Drive from Canmore / Banff and approach hike to Kain Hut or Applebee.
Day 2: Glacier tour in the "Glacier Peaks" with several peak ascents as options. Awe-inspiring close-ups of the big spires!
Day 3: East Post NE ridge scramble or top roping close to the hut or Applebee
Day 4: Hike out via Cobalt Lake and Blackforest ridge - some glacier travel and scrambling involved. One of Canada's most scenic hikes! Drive back.

MODERATE TECHNICAL ROCK CLIMBS (up tp 5.6), 10 - 14 hrs days
4 days, max of 2 participants / guide
Day 1: Drive from Canmore / Banff and approach hike to Kain Hut or Applebee.
Day 2: Pigeon West Ridge (5.5)
Day 3: Bugaboo Spire, Kain Route (5.6)
Day 4: Crescent Spire, Lion's Way (5.6) - return to trail head and drive back

DIFFICULT TECHNICAL ROCK CLIMBS (up to 5.8), 10 - 16 hrs days
4 days, max of 2 particpants / guide:
Day 1: Drive from Canmore / Banff and approach hike to Kain Hut or Applebee.
Day 2: Snowpatch Spire, Buckingham (5.8) or Snowpatch Route (5.8, 17 pitches!)
Day 3: Bugaboo Spire, NE Ridge (5.8)
Day 4: Crescent Spite. Ears Between (5.7) - return to trail head and drive back

VERY DIFFICULT TECHNICAL ROCK CLIMBS (to 5.10), 10 - 18 hrs days
5 days, max 1 participant / guide:
Day 1: Drive from Canmore / Banff and approach hike to Kain Hut or Applebee.
Day 2: Bugaboo Spire, NE Ridge (5.8)
Day 3: Approach hike to East Creek bivi at base, optional climb on Snowpatch Spire or Pigeon Spire depending on weather and fatigue.
Day 4: Beckey / Chouinard (5.10, 22 pitches), descent back to bivi site.
Day 5: Walk-out and drive back

A super-classic, largely owing its initial fame to Roper/Steck's book "50 Classic Climbs of North America". But clean, asthetic pitches and the great position on this big mountain speaks for itself. Consequently, it's a popular climb - 5 to 6 parties in one day are not rare on a nice cummer day. One of few places in Canada where I tend to be reminded of my European climbing roots and not just because of the good quality rock.

The 5.8 crux pitch comes right in the first technical pitch above a good ledge - usually the first and often only bottleneck on a busy day. The rest of the route is largely 5.6 with bits of short 5.7 sections. Don't expect to find too much usefull fixed gear - if so, for most part at the belays.

Most importantly, the Bugaboo NE is a mountaineering route - tremendously exposed to bad weather. After the 12 pitches of climbing, the exposed and time consuming traverse from North to South Summit is often underestimated, followed by the lenghty descent with 7 rapells down the Kain Route, requiring a good sense for route finding at a time of day, when fatigue is kicking in with a vengeance. After that, the perils the Bugaboo / Snowpatch Col decent are waiting, with increasing rock fall hazard, exposed ice and widening bergschrund as the summer progresses.

An estimated 30 - 40% of all parties end up spending the night somewhere on the mountain and hence come prepared!

Yet another masterpiece of Konrad Kain - Austrian Immigrant and one of Canada's finest mountain guide of all times. remember that he first climbed this in hob nail boots in 1916! when you're up on the crux pitch at the Gendarme.

The route is primarily a mountaineering route with lots of scrambling and the technical difficulties are concentrated in a few pitches relatively close to the summit.

The most difficult aspect for most parties is the fact that the same route has to be descended too. Fortunately, in the upper part, 6 rapells of bolted stations with chains avoide the technical pitches. Some attention is required when rapelling down the Gendarme towrds the east - don't go down too low but rather reascend into a small noth to the descenders right to find the next anchors in the notch.

E specially the further down you get you'll be asking yourself: Did we really come up here this morning?".

The following image shows the crux section of the Kain Route with the rapell anchors and the rapell leading into the Kain Route from the NE ridge.

Pigeon Spire West Ridge, (3150m), 5.5, 400 meters, 6-10 hrs round trip from the hut. Descent along the same route

Another must-do! Just about the best alpine rock climb of its grade that I can think of. Great position, lots of exposure, clean rock, interesting climbing sections including a short part of the ridge that needs to be climbed "au cheval" (straddling the ridge like a saddle) will keep you well entertained. Again, a bad place to be cought in a storm and with the lengthy, glaciated approach and descent it's not a trip to be underestimated. Many climbers will find it difficult to choose the appropriate method of protecting / belaying while maintaining good speed. Hence if you lead a party on this climb, you should be comfortable soloing 5.4 and 5.5, especially on descend.

The crux is a very short section about 60 meters below the summit, which can be well protected with mid-size to larger cams. Best to rapell of the summit slab (chained anchors) with a double rope. A single rope rapell is also possible, however in Aug 2007, one of the bolts (or the bolt hanger?) of the next station was dangling in the air attached the the chain and the remaining bolt.....

At the start of the climb you will find a fixed toilet, courtesy of the "Friends of Bugaboo Park" and CMH. While one might think this would be a perfect spot to bivi for one of the longer routes on the Howser Towers and just to grab your bivi gear on the descent, BC Park's regulations do not allow this. Rather you are being asked to decend into east creek to the base of the Howsers to use the bivi sites there.

South Howser Tower - Beckey / Chouinard, (5.10, 20 - 22 pitches, 14 - 24 hrs)

Another superlative climb labelled "the best of its grade in North America". What a line in a remote environment! The climbing is sustained at 5.8 and 5.9 with the occassional bits of 5.10. Descend by 6 double rope rappels on the shady (read icy) north-east side of the tower.

Even experts argue over the best logistical appoach to this and other excellent climbs on the south side of the Howser Towers. Among the options are a fly-in approach with the Alpine Helicopter stationed at the CMH lodge during the summer (contact CMH for pricing) or walk in via Kain Hut and bivi at the base both before and after the climb. Others do it in a single push Kain Hut to Kain Hut, which can well take 24 hours and a whole lot of travelling in the dark.