[MCR] Bugaboo glacier access to spires. August 28th, 2014

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Cold morning in the Bugs yesterday. We didn’t even bother looking at the Bugaboo/Snowpatch col and wandered up the Bugaboo glacier with hopes of Surf’s Up. Lots of sporty crevasse crossings on the upper Bugaboo glacier right now. Grey and windy along the divide so we went for Pigeon West Ridge instead. Descended by the Pigeon Snowpatch col rappels. 

There is getting to be a pretty good trail under the south faces of Son of Snowpatch above the Bugaboo glacier.  We went around the initial granite slabs on the glacier and went right near the top of that first ice slope. On the way down we picked it up from a big cairn down about 5 minutes walk from the base of the Pigeon/Snowpatch rappels. 

With travel and some cleaning this trail could be a pretty good thing. It will of course, get beaten up by melt and spring avalanches but it is a good option during these dry spells as the lower glacier recedes. One caution, this is “new” glacial recession. Unlike the relatively stable granite talus around the Kain Hut/Applebee basin, these blocks have not “settled”. I tried a short cut across some blocks at one point, gave them a kick as I was unsure and retreated as a big pile of them shifted, creaked and groaned. 

Larry Stanier
ACMG Mountain Guide