Elevation Gain: 2,366m
Distance: 21.6km
Total Time: 2 days
Date: August 9th, 2025
(Stats include Pigeon Spire + approach and descent)
The Bugaboos is undoubtedly a classic of classics for alpine climbing. Routes like the Beckey-Chouinard or the NE Ridge of Bugaboo Spire attract climbers from all over. Anyone I know whose been in there before has come back raving about the climbing and the setting. I never did prioritize getting out there though. In these last few years I’ve favoured venturing into more obscure terrain and I’d say the unexplored areas are where I find the most rewarding experiences. However, foul weather dictates where you go and when and this time was no different. Brayden and I had been forced all the way east to Idaho to escape a coastal weather system. Finally in our 7th day out, a window was forming in Alberta. The Bugaboos in particular looked quite promising and Brayden took little effort to convince me we should go. As a bonus, our friend Geoff and their mutual friend Nathan were going to join us. We had an ambitious plan to try South Howser tower and we could always fall back to any number of classic routes if it didn’t pan out.
We watched the forecast with some trepidation as Brayden and I set forth from Idaho. Our route took us from Boise, all the way up through Montana and finally just south of Jaffray, BC. I found us a random service road that over looked the valley and we setup to sleep for the night. In the morning we finished packing up just as the rain started to sputter down. This was expected, but the hope was that we’d be in the clear for the Bugs and get some clear weather on the following two days.
From Jaffray, we drove a few more hours north and then west on the Bugaboo Creek FSR; finally reaching Geoff and Nathan around 12PM. We packed up and head out as a 4 man team on the approach. The trail was in great shape and we whipped up to Kain Hut in short order and then traversed around the south side of Snowpatch Spire. The usual Snowpatch-Bugaboo col was out by now, but this southern approach was pretty straight forward.
Clouds swirled around and threatened to rain on us as we reached the large dry glacier below Pigeon Spire. We traversed across and then roped up for the ascent up the partially covered glacier. The rain turned from a threat into a reality and we started to get soaked as the wind and water whipped through the upper slopes. Our aim was for the Pigeon-Howser col where we hoped to setup tents for the evening. When we finally did reach the col, the tent sites were lacklustre to say the least. I naively thought that because an alpine toilet had been established here there might be some decent spots to setup a tent. Unfortunately virtually every one was too narrow for a two person tent or situated over bed rock. Geoff and Nathan had a slightly smaller tent than I and they resigned to a cramped but flat spot between two rocks. Brayden and I decided to descend over the other side and sleuth out a better spot. I went all the way down to the col proper where another pair was already setup and the few spots there looked abysmal as well.
Finally, I hiked up from the col until I was beneath the headwall above and saw potential with some handy work for a perfect spot. Brayden liked what he saw too, so we quickly go to work fashioning a tent platform from the talus and dirt. After an hours work we had a spot better than anything I’d seen along the way. Geoff came by shortly and we encouraged them to join. Soon we had a proper setup with Geoff and Nathan building their own tent site as well.
We made some dinner and then prepped for an alpine start. When 5am rolled around South Howser still looked engulfed in clouds. We weren’t feeling confident it would have dried up sufficiently and far below we could already see several pairs of head lamps at the base (we’d later find out only a single soloist actually committed, while the rest returned to their tents). In that moment, we made the call to go do Surf’s Up on Snowpatch Spire instead. Everyone was a bit disappointed, but for such a long and committing route it really only made sense to have a nice weather window to actually enjoy the climbing.
Slowly we crawled out of our tents, made some breakfast and hit the dusty trail (glaciated) trail. There are few alpine approaches easier than this as we descended downhill from our site for a meager kilometer and a bit to reach our climb. I gave Brayden the choice of lead and so he took pitch 1. Some tricky climbing eventually landed him at the base of a flake system and corner. These first few pitches are notoriously easy to get off route so we were careful to match it up with photos we’d seen. I climbed most of the rope length up and then had to spend a great deal of time finding a good anchor. Eventually something satisfactory came together when I climbed a bit higher and now Brayden followed up with Geoff and Nathan in tow.
Brayden took the crux pitch through some challenging stem moves and out into an alcove of sorts. Here is where things went side ways. My pitch was supposed to be a 5.7 route that traverses out to a prominent “diving board”. Looking above I could see countless bail anchors all around. So, when I set off I went right first and there too I saw a bail anchor. Reasoning about it, I thought perhaps I needed to go a bit higher. Soon I found myself in a dihedral pulling moves that were closer to 5.9/10a and realizing I may have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque. When I topped out I was behind a large channel that I could slither around and upon inspection realized I was way off route. I spotted a few bail anchors to my right, but I’d still have to find a way to clean the gear. Eventually I settled on an anchor down below me in a constriction. I whipped the rope up and over the massive slot and then made some down climbing moves to reach the anchor. I clipped in and then lowered and managed to clean the pieces without a huge hassle. Then as I swung by my rope promptly sucked into the constriction and refused to budge…
Out came the traxion and up went Francis to try and free the damn thing. After some rope wrestling I pulled it free and drew the rope out of the crack and over the side. Brayden lowered me again and just a few meters to the ground I felt the rope slide ever so slightly and then sucked right back in. This time was different though. Now the rope was fully weighted with a shit load of slack out and it just wasn’t coming free without a fight. By now I was pretty fed up. I’d spent over an hour trying to rectify the off route error and Brayden sensed I was done with it all. He offered to climb up and free it. A herculean effort was required to free it and Brayden corrected my previous two errors by extending the rappel. Finally… we were free. In the mean time Geoff had climbed out right and found the key ledge. It turned out that first bail anchor I had spotted was just an anchor someone left to lower off of. It was indeed the correct route… In any event there are about a dozen different ways I could have done that differently, so lesson learned.
Now I finished the lead going the proper way. As a bonus we were finally out in the sun. We party lapped up 4 more pitches to the broad ridge crest. Here we lead one long traversing pitch to the summit, but it’s low 5th at most. The day was shaping up again and I felt ecstatic to reach the summit at last.
From the summit we down climbed a short ways to the standard descent route and then made several event-free rappels to the base. We collected our gear and booted back up to our camp site. The day was still young and we were right below Pigeon Spire without a soul on route. Something I’d find out later was an extreme rarity. The Pigeon beckoned and so we heeded the call.
