Bugaboos 2019

Photo: Jaden Lojik

"Be safe, but not too safe" is something I've started telling my friends before they hop on something big and scary. And is an attitude I've tried to commit to more and more in my own climbing. I mean, it’s written all over your gear: “Climbing is dangerous”. Might as well embrace it. This tradition of boldness used to be such a big part of our sport, just look at all the old trad routes around the UK, the alpine routes in the Alps and the big walls of Yosemite. Boldness gave birth to alpine style climbing. Which pushed the standards to where we are now. And so I strive to follow in these steps, focusing on style in an effort to learn from the older generation of climbers and alpinists. To learn what it means to really go for it and live through these intense moments of complete focus that are so meaningful to me.

Pre-approach with our 90 pounds packs

Guide shorts and way too much gear. Photo: Jaden Lojik

In the summer of 2019 my good friend Jaden came to meet me in Canada for a few months of punting and try-hard. We started in Squamish for a few weeks, doing link-ups on the Chief and pushing our free-climbing limits on its impeccable walls before taking off for 2 weeks of alpine glory in the Bugaboos. We hoped that after all that climbing we’d be fit enough to really try something cool over there. We arrived in early August with 90 pound packs and way too much food for our own good. At least if it rains and we’re stuck in the tent we won’t starve.

Our first outing was to be something casual and fun, so we set our sight on doing the NE ridge of Bugaboo Spire (5.8, IV), descending the Kain route followed by a quick run up the W ridge of Pigeon Spire (5.4, III). We decided to go solo, only bringing a 60m tagline for rappels, aluminum crampons and axe, approach shoes, climbing shoes and chalk. It was an absolute blast of a day, 8 hours camp-to-camp.

Summit of Pigeon on our first day

Rest days, and footsies

After a rest day of pancakes and chess games we somehow convinced ourselves that linking the Cooper-Kor on Pigeon Spire and the Beckey-Chouinard on South Howser in a day was doable. We packed our bags for a big day, left camp early and started climbing on Pigeon at first light. We set off simul climbing for the first low-angle section of the route until Jaden dislodged a microwave sized boulder onto himself. He somehow managed to hold on to it but couldn’t move or it would’ve fallen on me. I soloed up to him and held the rock so he could get out of it’s way before letting it fall down the wall. We sure got lucky that day.

 After that whole ordeal we arrived at the start of the two long traversing pitches. I was to lead the first one, and while I was racking up I really thought it was gonna be a piece of cake. It’s a 30m traverse rated 5.8 R, but even with the low grade I ended up having quite the epic on the thing. It follows a friction slab and only has 3 pieces of questionable protection (one rusty old pin, and some small cams) and it had 2 very wide wet streaks that made it incredibly mentally difficult for me to commit to the moves. After somehow making it to the other side, unscathed but traumatized (I barely remember my time on it hah), Jaden took the next pitch. It also had a wet streak on the 5.10 slabby crux so he ended up doing a short pendulum to get through it. Now the traversing nightmare was over we were almost at the summit. With only a pitch or two to go before the East ridge. I did another longer pendulum into a soaking wet left facing corner where I aided up until we hit easier, and dryer rock. Needless to say that with all this ordeal we were behind on schedule and had to give up our hopes of linking into the B-C. So we summited and went back to camp for a good rest before our next mission. We totally got sandbagged on that one. The climb itself would’ve been awesome, and much easier, if it was dry so take our experience on it with a grain of salt. I would totally recommend it ! 12:30 camp-to-camp

Approaching the Cooper-Kor on Pigeon spire. Photo: Jaden Lojik

Racking up at the base of Pigeon. Photo: Ripley Boulianne

AAAAAAAND SANDBAGGED!!!. Photo: Jaden Lojik

Find the gear, I dare you. Photo: Ripley Boulianne

Before heading to the Bugs, we had talked about different plans and climbs we could go on. One option was to go deeper in the park and try and open some new routes on the less traveled peaks to the north, and another was to go and try hard on the West face of North Howser tower. At that point we had been there for about a week, including a resupply day to Golden and many lazy rest days and so far we had been very lucky with the weather, but our good fortune was running out and it looked like we only had 3-3.5 days of good weather left before a long low pressure spell rolled in. So we ditched the exploratory plans and set our sight on All along the watch tower on North Howser. A 1000 m behemoth of a route rated at 5.11+, C2-, VI. Our first alpine grade VI. Needless to say we were a bit scared and really stoked.

Bugaboo-Snowpatch col at first light. Photo: Ripley Boulianne

"Ward Robinson and I did the first ascent of this route. it's gratifying to read about all these experiences and to see the pictures, especially of the left-facing corner of the 'Watchtower' itself. We bivied twice, once 'below the difficulties' and once after. The second bivy was hanging our harnesses with our feet on a 6-inch ledge watching huge thunderstorms to the west. I had hopes of freeing the corner but after a short distance realized we had only a few pieces that fit the crack. So I began to aid it, placing a piece and then pulling the one below it. Ward and I got to know each other a bit on the Watchtower. I told him it was my first Grade VI, which raised his eyebrows. He told me about Ken dropping the pack the year before and said we were only going down if we dropped his cigarettes. On the third day cigarettes and coffee were all we had left. On the summit ridge we found snow patches and we brewed up a couple of times to keep ourselves going. During one such break we named the route All Along the Watchtower. For the record, it's the Jimi Hendrix version."

-Jim Walseth (Mountain Project, 2019)

So after pestering everyone at camp for beta and spending a full day deciding on what to and not to bring we settled on this kit:

• 2 bags, one 35L and one 18L
• 1 bivy bag
• 1 summer down sleeping bag (5 degree C)
• Double rack to #4
• 60m 9.4mm lead rope with 65m 7mm tag line
• Single rack of off-set cams
• 2 set of nuts
• 3 knife blade pitons
• 1 jumar
• 2 micro Traxion
• Pair of pocket aiders
• Axe and crampons
• 1 stove
• 3L of water
• Bars, gels, 2 dehydrated meals and coffee

Our plan was to approach in the dark, climb to the terrace below the big dihedral on the first day. Climb the corner and summit the next day, so we brought two days worth of food and had heard that the bivy ledge on the terrace had snow we could melt for water and so did the summit ridge which is why we brought the stove instead of more water. Our sleeping strategy was to sleep in same bag on top of our ropes because we knew we had to free climb some pretty hard stuff with packs on and so we didn’t want to bring an extra sleeping bag to save on weight and bulk. We also use Jenny Abegg’s topo which ended up being very accurate and a lot better than the one from the Piche/Atkinson’s guidebook.

On day one we got up around 2 am, quietly had breakfast and coffee then started walking up to the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col. We crossed three or four parties heading to the West ridge of Pigeon on the way and had a quick chat with them before enjoying the best dry toilet experience of my life at the Pigeon-Howser col. We hiked down to East creek, under the Howsers until we reached the rappel stations to the base of the West face of North Howser. And I gotta say, what a sight that chunk of rock is when you first see it. As planned, we started rapping before the sun was on us, as we had heard that this area was a shooting gallery of rocks when it warmed up.

We went through quite the ordeal on the way down because our beta had been wrong on the length of the rappels and we had to deal with some shenanigans before finally being back on snow. So just know that it’s a 30m rap, then 60m for the rest of the way down !

We were racking up at the base around 10:30 am. The first day went very well, albeit one pitch that did not feel like 5.9 to neither of us. The climbing was a lot of fun, with some delicate sections where you had to pull committing moves far from good gear. There were definitely sections with loose rock where we had to test some holds, but that’s to be expected on an alpine route of this size. Over all the rock is solid, the pro good and the moves fun.

Wild wilderness. Photo: Jaden Lojik

Pooped on day 1. Photo: Jaden Lojik

Nicest of ledges. Photo: Ripley Boulianne

We arrive early at the big bivy ledge, just in time to watch the sunset and contemplate the truly wild part of the world we were in. It had been a big day and the night was decently warm. We must’ve slept a full 8-9 hours and got up with the sun. Made some quick coffee and started up again.

From our bivy we had 4 more pitches to the base of the corner and it took us a while to get back in the grove, especially in the cold shade, but the sun found us quickly and we started having full-on type 1 fun again. Arriving at the base of the corner is quite the sight. And because of perspective it looks much shorter than it really is. Jaden took the first lead, free-climbing until he ran out of gear. We went that way for 4-5 pitches until we reached the roof crux. At that point I completely bunked, and thank god for having an amazing partner, we had a quick pep talk and Jaden set off in his aiders as the sun was setting. I’m pretty sure I’ll remember this belay for the rest of my life. I was fully hanging in my harness, with all the bags clipped on the anchor. Throughout the pitch I went from t-shift with no shoes on to literally wearing all my layers and shivering. Plus I ran out of cigarettes, which was the real tragedy here, and an interesting nod to the first attempt of this climb where they had to go down because they had dropped their smokes (and bags). After almost 3 hours (we’re not that strong on the whole aid thing) I finally heard the far away “off belay” I had been dreaming of. At this point it was completely dark. Jaden fixed the line and I started jummaring up to him, taking giant swings 2500 feet off the ground into complete darkness until, at last I could stand on solid ground again. At this point freeing the next few pitches to the summit ridge was completely out of the question so we kept going aid/french-free/anything goes style until at last we reached the ridge. At this point we were both having auditory hallucinations from the lack of sleep and we decided that at the first resemblance of a ledge we would shiver-bivy for at least a few hours. I don’t exactly remember but it must’ve been around 5:30-6am at that point, which means we had been on the go for almost 24 hours and that, let me tell you, will take a toll on your body. So we slept for maybe 2 hours on this slanted, 3 butt-cheeks sized ledge until the sun came up.

Sunset before the endless aid pitch. Photo: Jaden Lojik

Me belaying Jaden

Jaden at the end of his aid pitch. We both took the same picture without consulting eachother, which is quite the testament of this experience.

Coming up the fixed line. Photo: Jaden Lojik

Because we had planned for 2 days, we had only one or two caffeine gel left, no water and some weird piece of candy we had saved for the summit that we found at the dollar tree in Squamish. I took off on the last roped pitch of the climb, feeling like I was way beyond where my body could take me. As I stepped off the belay a chunk of rock flew out of my hand. Still real until the end I guess. After that we soloed the rest of the ridge, maybe to 5.8-5.9 at times and summited around noon.

This thing. It wasn't that good. We didn't care.

STOKED STOKED STOKED

I had never felt like that before in my life, feeling like a climb literally took everything out of me and demanded more, and that somehow we still made it to the top. Truly a highlight of my life, and a pivotal point in my climbing, where it became clear that going up big, remote walls with awesome friends was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

The bugs are cool, you should go.