Bugaboos with Banff Life Sept 2011

Ahhhh, the Bugaboos…and with a forecast of all suns our small crew couldn’t wait to get started! Sadly, the couple days before gave way to a great deal of precipitation and so the Spires had a fresh 20cms of snow on them. This made for a beautiful Bugaboos but would not lend itself well to climbing some of the bigger spires:(

The first day we packed our bags in Banff, made the drive up to the Bugs and got dropped off by the van. This was Bugaboos in style! The hike in went quickly with this fit group and soon we were making our home in the Hut. At first we thought we would have a bunch of space, but sure enough with the long weekend the hut slowly started to fill and continued to do so till 12pm!

Due to the fresh snow we decided to climb Hounds tooth the following morning. Up early we soon found ourselves in a bluebird morning making fresh tracks on the glacier. Gorgeous day, in an incredible place, we enjoyed the views on Hounds Tooth and then headed back to the glacier. With lots of time on our hands, we broke a new trail to the Pigeon col and opted to climb a Pigeon Feather. the new snow made this little ascent a bit of a challenge but all worth the views of the back of the Howsers! We decided to make a full loop and head over to the Bugaboo Snowpatch Col and eventually back to the hut. A full Circuit of the Bugaboos!

The next morning we enjoyed a small sleep in…no point in getting on the rock too early in the cold am! We headed over to Crescent where Kris, Ger and Pete climbed Lions Way and Christine, Claire and I climbed Ears Between. A warm and sunny bluebird day again made climbing the Crescent towers pure joy on a September day. I had never climbed Ears Between, very cool route, with some interesting old school cracks and climbing! Claire and Christine did amazing and we popped out between the ears to watch the boys on their last pitch of Lions Way! Arm pumps and wahoos brought us all to the top of our climbs:) Back at the hut we shared another great meal from the Backcountry Bistro and shared stories of the day.

Our final morning, we got up early to ensure tagging one last peak. We headed up to Eastpost for the final morning climb and yet again enjoyed blue sky views of the area from yet another vantage point. Back to the hut and packed our bags for the hike out of this amazing place:( On our drive out we went slightly out of our way to hit up the Spillamacheen Apiary...Beeland...this is a must stop for all Bugabooers….what a great little store. you have to try the Raspberry honey, my personal favorite!

Thanks Ger, Pete, Christine, Claire and Kris for a great trip to the Bugs! Can’t wait to do it again next year!