Bugaboo Quickie
Now that I'm a father of a seven month old baby, Mateo, I seem to have much less time for myself and for my selfish outdoor pursuits. This hasn't dampened my spirits at all, since becoming a father has done nothing but enrich my life with new and fun experiences. I have however had to focus on improving my efficiency since freetime is now more limited. This past weekend I had an unexpected window of time where I was able to get out to climb for two days in the world class granite spires of the Bugaboos. I had some friends who invited me to join them and the weather forecast was amazing, so I put my head down at work and at home to make it happen.
Arriving late on a friday night, I quickly got organized and made plans to hopefully climb a the ultra classic 20-22 pitch Beckey-Chouinard on South Howser Tower on Sunday. Saturday dawned clear and wanting to have a shorter day we (Nelson Rocha, Steve Ogle and myself) decided to warm up on Paddle Flake on crescent spire. Aside from being a little slow climbing as a three, we had a blast. I have been missing granite crack climbing since I've moved away from Squamish, and this gave me a much needed fix.
That evening we tried to go to sleep early, since we were going to attempt the route in a day from the Applebee campsite (seeing as I didn't have time to bivy at the east creek campsite). We left camp at 3 AM Sunday morning, and headed off on a 3 hour hike over to the base of the route. Raphael Slawinski, who had done the route earlier that week, told us that there was water at the base of the climb which we were counting on, and sure enough we found it as we were starting the scramble up towards the initial pitches.
The climbing was fantastic and the line is very aesthetic, since the route follows a weakness that runs the entire length of the route (~800m). We made relatively good time considering we were cold due to the wind, and probably brought too much food and water, and also packed crampons (which we didn't need). Highlights of the route were definitely pitch 7 up the amazing corner, and pitch 11 which is the first pitch on the great white headwall. We should have brought a little less (we each carried a backpack), and focussed on being as light as possible since fatigue set in up high on the route.
We summited at around 6PM and used the new rappel route down the North Face Ridge installed by The Friends of Bugaboo Park which worked out really well using only a single 70m rope. We had a relatively quick hike back to camp and to our surprise arrived to a cooked dinner (Thanks Lynda!!!). I woke up on monday morning in a bit of a surreal haze of fatigue and elation as often you do when you've achieved a sought after goal. I would have liked to stay longer, but work and my homelife were calling so I made the quick hike out and the long drive home to Nelson. I'm hoping this climbing fix will keep me going for a bit, but it seems like I'm already trying to piece together the next route...
here's some useful descent beta:
Athletes & Staff
 Cam Shute |
