Bugaboo Trip #1

Pat and I have been talking of doing a climbing road trip for a few months now. We parted ways with our jobs and will be living the climbing bum lifestyle for a little while. I finished work a week earlier than he did and took the time to go to one of the "world famous alpine rock climbing centres" called the Bugaboos. Pat and I do plan on going there towards the end of this month. On this trip I climbed with a co-worker (Audrey) and met up with a friend (James) that introduced me to climbing when we were both working at Monods Sports in Banff.



Applebee campground under the moonlight.




Relaxing at camp with a morning coffee.




The kitchen. A friend left behind a half-frozen jar of Nutella. Score!





A rare scene. A tree above "tree line" in the alpine.





Snowpatch Spire to the left and part of Bugaboo Spire to the right.





Crescent Spire to the left and part of Eastpost Spire to the right.



Aug. 8^th, 2011

Bugaboo; Crescent Spire, Ears Between – direct start 5.8, 6 pitches

We used rocks to peg down our tent since the whole “camping ground” is on top of a large rocky surface.

We had a lazy start to the day since Audrey and I hauled our monster load 5km uphill to the campsite. It had taken us 3h45 from the car. We woke up at 0700h and didn’t leave until 1000h. We walked out to attempt a climb called “Ears Between” on Crescent Spire which wasn’t too far from camp and seemed like a good start to the week. We went for the optional direct start and were climbing by 1045h. It was great to be climbing on granite! The rock was mostly solid. A nice change, since the Rockies is mostly made out of more shattered limestone. The last pitch was the best with the two previous ones also being good. We topped out at around 1530h. There were two short rappels near the top. We then stuck to the ridge and down climbed sections of easier terrain to get back to the tent. After a drink and a quick bite to eat I scrambled up to the sub-peak of Eastpost Spire to take in the views of the lowering sun.



On our way up to Ears Between on Crescent Spire.




James leading up the first pitch.




James halfway up the first pitch.





Stopping on our way back to fill up the water bottle. Straight from the source.





Great views along an alpine lake on the walk back to camp.



Aug. 9^th, 2011

Bugaboo; Bugaboo Spire, North-East ridge 5.8, 12 pitches

Total time: 13h50

Ascended: 905m

Approach: 2h45

The climb: 7h15

Descent to Bugaboo/Snowpatch col: 3hrs

Descent from Col to camp: 40min

Woke up at 0345h and left for the North-East ridge of Bugaboo Spire by 0500h. Audrey and I approached up a wide gully to the right of what is suggested in the guidebook. While James and Mark were about 10min behind us. They kept going and found the suggested path up. It saved them around 20min. The crux was the first pitch which we combined with the second. It had a great finger crack to start off. Most of the route in the lower half was more technical with great cracks and corner systems. It eased off once in the chimney section on the sixth pitch. The scenery on top was a little spoiled by the view of an oncoming storm from the South-East in line with the Howser Towers. I was told that a lot of storms in the Bugaboo’s originate from the heat build-up of the valley behind the Howser Towers. Here was my proof! The descent was as much of an adventure. During one of the days previous to our arrival James fortunately had climbed the Kain Route up to the gendarme (which is also the descent for our route). There was a mix of exposure and traversing on sections of narrow ridges. It reminded me of the West Ridge of Pigeon Spire which I climbed last summer. We made good time lowering off the mountain and saw a few isolated dark clouds pass by us. We got off the mountain with only a few rain drops on us and the sound of thunder in the background.  



Sunrise with Crescent Towers in the background. Can you spot the climber?





The North-East face of Bugaboo Spire in the morning glow.




Somewhere up the N-E of Bugaboo Spire.




James heading up Bugaboo Spire.



Aug. 10^th, 2011

Bugaboo; Eastpost Spire, South-East ridge 5.6, 550m

Audrey and I Traversed Eastpost Spire with a departure time of 1000h. It was nice to sleep in a little and rest up from yesterday’s big day.  We were both still feeling tired but knew that today’s climb would be a more relaxing one. The forecast also called for afternoon thunder showers so we didn’t want to get onto anything too committing and get caught by surprise. We roped up for the first part of technical climbing at 1100h and topped out at 1230h. The guidebook was vague as to where the start of the climb was. We started on loose and ugly rock. Then “hiked” up steep scree and passed through some bushes to finally arrive on good solid rock higher up on the main ridge. When we arrived in camp we had time to sort our gear and get into the tent before dark clouds and strong winds brought rain, lightning and even hail!



Eastpost Spire. The traverse went from the rightside over to the left.





High up on the climb.





The exposed ridge top.





The oncoming storm!





The hail storm beating down while we're in the tent.
Some people were caught climbing during the storm.



Aug. 11^th, 2011

Bugaboo; Hounds Tooth, North-West face, 3^rd class 100m

Eight of James’ friends including us planned to climb the East Ridge of Marmolata Peak (5.6) as a group. We left at 0700h and crossed the Pigeon Fork/Bugaboo Glacier roped up as two teams of four.  We ascended 480m on our way to the top of Hounds tooth which we reached by 1000h. As we were finishing up the summit photo session of Hounds Tooth peak we started noticing cloud accumulation coming up behind the Howser towers (Again!).  We decided as a group to sit around for a little while to see if it would improve or worsen. After 15min the cloud cover seemed to make its way towards us. We took another group decision to head down and not keep on going for the East Ridge of Marmolata peak. With more clouds rolling in we reached the Applebee campsite around 1300h. We could see from our camp that the clouds kept covering Marmolata most of the afternoon but it didn’t rain. The decision to turn around was still the right one since the cloud cover could have made the descent trivial. Especially when having to cross some large bergshrunds on the way down. 



The crew heading out from camp.




Roping up for glacier travel.




View of Pigeon Spire along the way.




Hounds Tooth is on the left side and Marmolata on the right.





The group on top of Hounds Tooth. Marmolata ridge in the background.





Clouds starting to build up on Howser Towers.




Isolated showers nearby. Just missing us.




What's left when looking towards the Howser Towers.



Aug. 12^th, 2011

Bugaboo; Snowpatch Spire, Buckingham route – The enjoyable way 5.8, 8 pitches

Total time: 8h30min

Asc: 660m

Approach: 1h20min asc, 348m

Climb: 3h30, asc.225m

Descent: 2h20

Return to camp: 1h10 asc. 70m

We left camp at 0730h and went up the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col. The col was easy. I didn’t use crampons since there were already good steps. Once at the base we met two other guys who were getting ready to climb the same route. One of them look so much like a friend of mine called Dom. He even spoke like him! Since we were trying to squeeze in the climb before having to pack everything up and leave. We asked if they would mind us passing them since we planned to simul-climb the first few pitches. We passed them on the first pitch and kept going for the following 5 pitches on easier broken ground (5.6). The last three pitches were more sustained and great. From the last pitch of our climb we could see and hear James with a few friends yelling up towards us as they went by to do “Surfs Up” also on Snowpatch Spire. We had clear skies above us when we topped out and had great views of Pigeon Spire, the Howser Towers and Bugaboo Spire. James had warned us yesterday about the rappels back down being quite time consuming and there were risks of our ropes snagging. Sure enough our ropes caught on the first three rappels down... Frustrating! We had to climb up to our stuck ropes while being belayed with the other double rope. After that we switched to using only one rope which solved the issue. Less rope to deal with, lesser problems!

We arrived back at the Applebee campground around 1600h and cooked some lunch/dinner and took down our camp. We headed off to the parking lot around 1820h and arrived at the van at 2000h tired from the day and the massive load on our backs. We were in Banff at 2330h.



On top of the Buckingham route - The Enjoyable Way.



Windtower; North-East Face 5.10a

Left car at 0600h

Returned to car at 2015h

Started climbing at 0830h

Finished climbing at 1900h

Total pitches: 11 + 400m of 4^th and low 5^th class climbing

 Pat and I are back a week later for a second attempt. We left at the same time as last week but didn’t lose nearly as much time searching around for the start of the climb. Earlier this week Pat spoke with Cian, our climbing buddy, who did the climb last year. With the added information, we knew to look for two pitons that would mark the top of the first pitch. When we found them we were happy to be on track! We started upwards around 0830h. We negotiated some loose rock on the first two pitches but afterwards the climbing became very enjoyable. We agreed that the crux for both of us was the 10m off-width crack on the 7^th pitch.






 Even though it wasn’t rated the most difficult at 5.9 it was the most awkward technically. As we arrived at the last two technical pitches dark clouds started rolling above us from each side of the Windtower. When we heard lightning in the distance that’s when we really started to press on. Heading back down the climb wasn’t much of an option anymore since we were already quite high. Pat led and linked up the last two pitches. It was a nice long pitch of almost only layback moves. Unfortunately I didn’t get to enjoy it much since all I was concentrating on was to get to the top. The only thing on our mind was to head down and off the peak as fast as possible. Once past the 11^th and last pitch we simul-climbed about 400m of 4^th and low 5^th class climbing.

Once on the summit we quickly packed our climbing gear and started running down the long scree slope towards tree line. On the way down we could see the town of Canmore a few kilometres N-W covered by dark clouds and getting pounded by rain which was coming our way. We only stopped once bellow tree line for a quick drink of what was left in our water bottles and carried on to the van. We took a few minutes before leaving to watch the incoming dark clouds, lightning and the veil of rain that followed. Glad we were down in time!

Windtower; North-East Ridge 5.4

I’ve been mostly sport climbing lately and just came back from visiting Ontario for 2 weeks. It feels like it’s been a while since I’ve been out on a bigger climb. Probably because it has been a while! The N-E ridge wasn’t our intended climb. We had bigger plans to climb the N-E face (5.10a, 570m) but had difficulties along the way. Pat was house-sitting in Canmore for the month so I came over and slept there to get a little head start closer to the climb and a few more minutes of shut eye. We left at 0530h and parked bellow the approach to the West Wind Pass. We cruised up to the top of the pass making good time (30 min). Unfortunately this was the only part of the day where we made good time. From there we fumbled around looking for the correct way down past cliff bands to reach a faint trail bellow. Before that we even stared to head towards the wrong peak West of the Windtower... Note: Study the approach information thoroughly before heading out!

With about two hours wasted from scrambling around we made it to the base of the N-E face. The guidebook does mention that a lot of parties lose a lot of time trying to find the start of the route. I found out why! The face is quite wide and there aren’t any big distinguishing features to indicate where to start. We studied it from further down and thought we had figured it out. Once up and against the face we kept walking back and forth. We tried to locate ourselves with where we were in relation to the information about the climb which we had written down. It took us another hour or so before finally thinking we had things figured out. We traversed all the way across the scree ledges and found a section of rock above which seemed close to the description of the climb. Still it wasn’t exactly the same. By now it was later than we would have liked since the climb is quite long. We decided to at least climb the corner of rock above to see if we could at least find evidence that this was the correct way. I climbed the 5.8 pitch to a ledge which seemed like the route. Although I still wasn’t totally sure this was the way. By now we had agreed that it was too late to attempt the climb. I down-climbed the pitch and we decided to climb the N-E ridge as our consolation prize.

We figured that simul-climbing most of the ridge wouldn’t be a problem and that if we needed to we could belay any more difficult sections. We didn’t need to belay any of it and reached the summit after 2hrs from the base of the ridge. That included me being lowered down a pitch to retrieve Pat’s chalk bag which he dropped onto a ledge half-way up. The walk down from the top was easy and straight forward with a good trail the whole way.

Photo's will be posted soon!

Diadem Peak, Humble Horse IV 5.7 W4

Weather: 15C Cloudy with sunny breaks. Little wind.

Peak: 3371m

Time of Departure: 0645h (Late alpine start!)

Time of Return: 0115h

Total Time: 19h30min

Approach: 8km (Gain of 1345m)

Climb: 610m

Return: 13.5km (Loss of 1955m)

Because of our late start, I had little hope of actually climbing and thought we were out for a scouting mission to get familiar with the approach to do the climb tomorrow. From the parking lot, we forded the Sunwapta River (crotch deep!) and walked up and along Diadem Creek. We reached the moraine and trended right to head up and reach the glacier. It took us five hours to reach the base of Diadem Peak. On the approach I had low expectations of actually doing the climb due to our late start. Once at the base and looking at the route we decided to give it a shot. There was a 300m snow slope that steepened up to 55 degrees as we climbed. Crossing the ‘schrund was easy with supportive snow bridging it. Our steps in the snow came to boot top and was supportive. We then roped up for the first pitch. Carsten led the first 60m pitch of mixed rock which also involved digging through a foot or two of snow. We opted to climb to the left of the suggested couloir because it was lower angled and we thought to go through it quickly. Instead the protection was scarce. Two more pitches of easy rock and little protection brought us to the first pitch of ice. This was the first alpine route where pitons were a must to help make belay stations and place as protection during the climb. The following pitch of ice was great and kicked quite steeply for a few meters. The thicker ice was about a foot wide and varied in depth up to 6 inches. Another stretch of 55 degree ice reached steeper mixed grounds. The last pitch was a fun mix of rock and ice which thinned out and topped out onto 5.7 rock. To reach the summit we opted to contour bellow a big menacing cornice and traversed onto some more rock to get around and above.

To descend we walked down to the Woolley-Diadem col and passed next to big seracs. We got off the glacier around 2230h just before darkness set in. We walked the Woolley creek drainage out towards the highway and forded the Sunwapta river once again to reach the highway. The following 6km along the highway to reach the van was dreadfully long. I’d close my eyes from time to time and walk in auto-pilot mode. An hour and a half later and we made it to the van where our sleeping bags called on us.

It was interesting to see how my mentality changed as I realized we were going to commit to the climb with a later start. Overall the climbing was great with mental challenges coming from runout sections.

The route follows the couloir directly to the top.

















Heading up the initial snow slope.























Carsten heading up the first mixed pitch.




Summit photo!




Walking towards the Woolley-Diadem col.
Mt. Alberta in the background






Mt. Athabasca, North Face III 5.4

This spring in particular hasn’t offered the best conditions for alpine climbs in the Rockies due to the higher than average snowpack which lingered around for longer. I took this time to work on rock climbing technique by sport climbing at Grassi Lakes and Grotto Canyon in Canmore. I also honed down gear placements with a few days of climbing on Yamnuska and a day out at the back of the lake at Lake Louise. The weather has been quite wet. During one of the rainy days, Erin and I made a trip out to the more arid “town” of Spillimacheen and discovered an awesome climbing crag within two and a half hours from Banff.

The shoulder season between winter and summer is finally coming to an end. Pat and I were discussing to ski tour up onto the Columbia Icefields and ski up the Twin Towers (3^rd highest peak in the Canadian Rockies). But as the weekend neared, the weather forecast didn’t look promising for the three days needed for the trip. Instead, we opted to attempt Mt. Athabasca’s North Face (3491m). We drove up Saturday night at 2000h after I finished work. After two hours of driving we parked along the Snocoach Road and slept in the van.

We were hoping for an overnight freeze when we woke up at 0200h. Unfortunately it didn’t happen; instead we were greeted with a little drizzle of rain bouncing off the van’s roof and moderate to strong gusts of wind. We didn’t mind the weather conditions as we started heading up the glacial moraine at 2030h. As we walked along I was hoping that there would be some freezing higher up to hold the snow bridges together on the glacier and the rock and snow on the north face as well. The drizzle did turn into a light snow once on the North Glacier. But there was also a thick cloud/fog cover which reduced our visibility to about 10 ft. There was only a slight crust that froze on the glacier overnight and the snow bellow it was wet and heavy. Earlier this morning I was woken up by a group who had left before us at 0145h. We followed their tracks and caught up to them a few minutes before reaching the seracs bellow the Silverhorn route. When I asked which route they were planning to do I was glad to hear them say the Silverhorn and not our intended route. Around 0500h I decided to stop for a few minutes hoping that the sunrise would soon give us a better clue of our direction since we were still navigating in the dark and the visibility was still poor. The cloud cover opened up momentarily and gave us a glimpse of Mt. Athabasca. We were nearing the seracs bellow the Silverhorn route and I took a bearing of 120 degrees with my compass assuming the cloud cover was going to roll back over us which it did. The first light of the day was starting to brighten things up around 0530h, but the snow conditions didn’t improve as we climbed higher up. We realized that the snowpack was possibly going to be similar on the North Face and called it a day. A good overnight freeze would make the climbing safer and more enjoyable. As we followed our tracks back down the North Glacier Pat tweaked his knee. His leg caught in the snow as he fell forward. He had a little hop going on since he couldn’t put too much pressure on his leg. Once past the glacier he managed the sections scree and snow quite well considering. After a little snooze in the van we drove home. The 2hr car ride gave Pat’s knee enough time to stiffen up. He was in quite a lot of pain as he hoped up the apartment stairs and determined that he probably has a slight tear in his ACL.

Time of departure: 0230h

Highest point: 2900m

Time of return: 0630h

Mt. Sir Douglas attempt, South-East Face IV, 5.6

Approach: 5:15 (Asc 953m)

Climb: 3:40 (Asc 398m) Reached 3285m

Descent: 1:20

Return: 1:35 (Asc 20m)

May 8^th, 2011

At 1030h Pat and I skied along Burstall Pass and ascended 953m up the Robertson Glacier to reach the Mt. Douglas/Robertson col (2900m) by 1545h. The sky was clear with an intense sun and the temperature was around 12C. There was a lot of sluffing on the approach bellow the Robertson Glacier from the sun radiating onto the East facing slopes by 1100h. This showed how important it was to have an early start tomorrow. The going was flat until we hit the glacier. This is where most of the elevation was gained. Clouds lingered around the mountain which made it impossible to see our intended climbing route we planned to do tomorrow. While setting up camp a break in the clouds gave us a quick glimpse. The face was quite big. The longest technical climb I planned to do so far. Seemed like we had quite a day ahead! We dug our camp against a wind lip of snow and were in bed by 1930h.



View of Mt. Sir Douglas on the left.





















 

Our camp on top of the col.



 

 

Looking at Mt. Sir Douglas from the col.



 

May 9^th, 2011

The alarm went off at 0300h. We needed an early start if we wanted to avoid falling snow and rock. A quick bite of bagel and peanut butter washed down with some coffee which was kept warm in the thermos and out of our sleeping bags we went. By the time we pulled on some warmer layers and boots it was 0400h. Everything seems to take longer when you’re winter camping. We started walking along the ridge leading to the base of the snow gully on the East face of Mt. Sir Douglas. It was obvious where the bergschrund was since it wasn’t completely covered. The crossing wasn’t too difficult. The snow in the lower wide gully was more work than I had expected. I thought that with the warmer weather. The melt/freeze of the sun would have had a bigger effect on the snow giving us a firmer surface to slog up in the morning. Instead, we occasionally had snow up to our knees. Our advance was more time and energy consuming than expected. When we reached the highest point in the gully we started trending right onto a narrow snow ledge. This is where the more technical climbing (5.6) was to start. It was now 0740h and the sun was starting to break through the clouds. It made for amazing views with us above a sea of clouds. But the intensity of the sun and the temperatures were something to worry about. The weather forecast was predicting clouds in the morning but they seemed to linger too low in the valley to cover the upper section of the peak. There was a good amount of snow pillows sitting on the rocky ledges of the face. I didn’t want to sit around too long with the sluffing we witnessed yesterday. We made the decision to bail on our attempt for the summit and returned back on our tracks. Lower down in the gully we started to see small signs of melt. At 0900h we were back at the tent. We didn’t witness too many signs of sluffing until 1025h which was when we started skiing down the Robertson Glacier. At first it was a fun ski descent on boot top snow. Although lower down we came across a hard crust that made it difficult to turn on skis. Especially with 70L packs that weighted around 50lbs. We made it back to the van for 1200h.


View of the sunrise before turning around.



Pat heading down. One step at a time.



Back at camp.

 





Skiing past some seracs higher up on the Robertson Glacier.



Fine style on nice snow. Even with a 50+lbs pack.

Mt. Willingdon (3373m), West Ridge I

May 1^st, 2011

Pat and I approached from the parking lot of Mosquito Creek to our camp (roughly 20km) beside Devon Lakes in 8hrs with 1190m of elevation gain. The majority of elevation gain came from crossing over Quartzite col. We went too far up into the cirque before climbing up to the col and found ourselves having to come down 50-70m to where we could ski down the other side. Where we originally appeared on top of the col. The terrain wasn’t skiable over the other side because of cliff bands. We could have saved ourselves the extra time and elevation gain by heading up the previous drainage. There was some moderate wind on top of col.  This wind did cause a little snow transport (cross-loading from the S-W). But the amount didn’t have us too worried of wind loaded slopes (which could be avalanche prone) for the steep descent down to the Siffleur River. From bellow we saw that an easier alternative could have been taken another 300-400m to the east. This seemed to be a better route when we would return since the risk of cornices from above seemed lesser. The sky remained clear and sunny all day with a high of about 5C.  The snow at valley bottom started to turn heavy and wet by 1100h. While arriving to our base camp destination we witnessed a size 2-3? avalanche go down the NW face of Devon Mtn around 1630h. It seemed to have been triggered by the afternoon sun. It sheered to the ground (about 2m?) and was about 200m wide. I made sure to note this and kept it in mind for tomorrow.



On top of Quartzite Col looking
onto our descent to the left.



Skiing down on beautiful snow.





... and the skiing kept going.



Views from the bottom of Quartzite Col.



A well deserved water break.
Taking advantage of not having to melt snow.





Avalanche that came down Devon mtn.



 May 2^nd, 2011

Total time: 11h45 min (Peak 3373m)

Base camp to peak: 4hrs (ascended 1106m)---------------0745h – 1145h

Peak to base camp: 1h30min (asc. 36m)--------------------1145h – 1315h

Stopped for lunch and broke down base camp-------------1315h – 1445h

Base camp to car: 5hr (asc. 524m)----------------------------1445h – 1945h

Asc: 1667m, Dsc: 2166m (500m loss from camp to car)

ZZZ... The alarm went off at 0630h. We ate our frozen bagels with peanut butter and washed them down with our pre-brewed coffee from last night. Got to love a good thermos! We changed our clothes and finished preparing our equipment for the day without much rush. The skies were clear just like yesterday. Which was a nice surprise since the forecast before leaving Banff was predicting a possibility of precipitation. The approach to the bottom of the ridge was quite fast on the frozen snow crust. There was enough snow to ski up to where the ridge steepened. We left our skis there and kept our touring boots to walk/climb up the rest of the way along the ridge. The route wasn’t very technical. We did stay conscious of cornices along the ridge though. I had brought along a short 20m rope and pitons to protect the “crux” of the route. The 5m cliff band near the top wasn’t as exposed and hard as we thought. The views from the summit were quite good although clouds were coming in from the S-E. It was quite cold up there with a moderate wind still persisting from yesterday. The descent was fast and simple. Unfortunately, the skiing wasn’t good since the snow still had a hard crust. It still beats having to hike down though! 
A bite to eat and off we went again. We broke down camp and packed our bags to head back home. The snow at camp and in the valley had already started to see the effect of the sun melt. The weather was similar to yesterday although by now a layer of thin clouds were starting to cover us. Once at Quartzite Col. We ascended the gully we had scoped out yesterday. The slope steepened quite a bit at the headwall. So we attached our skis to our packs and boot packed up the rest. I expected to struggle a lot more to get up with deep snow. But we reached the top of the Col after 1h30min. It still wasn’t a walk in the park. The Col was a blast to ski down but was the crux of the day to get up and we were glad once on top. It would of been way more convenient to have gotten over the Col in the summer when the snow has almost all disappeared. Once near the creek we followed our old tracks back to the van in good time. We enjoyed the elevation loss!

Heading out for the day.

 

The start of the ridge.



The beginning of our walk to the top.
The summit can be seen on the top right.



The final section of the ridge.




Almost there...



 






Summit photo!