Bugaboo Snafu

After getting everything in order so that Melissa would be able to transfer my plates for me once I finally get the title for the new car, I was all set to hit the road Friday morning...until I got sick. I spent Thursday afternoon and all day Friday laying on the couch feeling like crap. After some discussion with Eric, we decided that he would fly out as planned on Saturday, spend the night in Spokane, and I would pick him up Sunday evening, and we would continue with the trip one day short. Fortunately, I felt a lot better Saturday morning, and finally managed to eat something. I made the 15 hour drive to Rapid City, SD, where I stopped at Walmart for the night, then drove the rest of the way to Cour d' Alene, ID, where Eric met me, arriving about 7:30 PM on Sunday. As it turned out, Eric's flight out of Denver was overbooked, so he got a free hotel room. Bonus!

In Cour D' Alene, Eric took over driving. To my surprise, we made it across the Canadian border without being searched or harrassed. This was a first for me. Around 2 in the morning or so, we made it to Bugaboo Provincial Park, and slept in the parking lot. Monday morning, we packed up our gear and, around 11, started the hike in to Applebee Camp. About 4 miles and 2700 vertical feet later, we arrived at camp. In case you are thinking about hiking 4 miles with 2700 feet of elevation gain, carrying a 70 pound pack after being sick for two days and not really eating well for 4 days, I don't recommend it. I was completely wiped out when I got to camp.

The Cruncharu, defended from brake line eating porcupines


Eric on the approach. Snowpatch Spire visible on the right.


Eric again. Unknown glacier in the background.

Applebee Camp

View from Applebee Camp

It started raining when I was about a quarter mile from camp. It didn't really stop until about 2:00PM the next day. About a mile below the campground is the Conrad Kain Hut, a shelter maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada for use by climbers. We weren't staying in the hut because I'm a cheapskate, but we hiked down there Monday morning to escape the rain.

The Kain Hut, from the approach to Applebee Camp

In addition to making us wet, the rain brought mud and rock slides down the Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col. This posed a problem since the approach and/or descent to/from a lot of routes passes through this col, and the rockfall left dangerous conditions there. So much for doing the Kain Route on Bugaboo Spire.

The Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col after the rockslides.

After drying out at the hut, and having a nice hot dinner, we headed back to camp, with the promise of clear skies in the forecast for the next day. Wednesday morning, we woke up early and headed toward our objective for the day: the Crescent Towers.

Looking back on Applebee Camp from the approach to the Crescent Towers

For our first climb of the trip, we opted for a relatively short climb (6 pitches), with a relatively easy approach (about an hour and a half of scrambling from camp), called Lion's Way, on the Left Central Crescent Tower. The climb had one 5.6 pitch and the rest was 4th class or easy 5th class. It was a fun climb, with one of the highlights being an easy, but exposed arete on the second to last pitch.

Looking up the final pitch of Lion's Way

Me and Eric on top of the Crescent Towers.

We summited before noon and were back in camp between 1 and 2 PM. I've never finished a multi-pitch route before noon before. After lounging around camp for a while, we hiked to the toe of the Bugaboo Glacier to check out the approach to Pigeon Spire. It was going to be a long approach, with substantial glacier travel.

After getting all our gear ready for an alpine start on Pigeon Spire, we got the weather forecast. Crap. They were now calling for a 70% chance of rain, starting in the afternoon, and a 70% chance of rain on Friday. Given this, we decided to abandon our plans for Pigeon Spire, and hike out on Thursday. The prospects of a descent and hike back to camp in the rain, and a hike out, with soaking wet gear in the rain were not appealing.

Wednesday night, I woke up to the sound of rain on the tent, then it softened to what sounded like a light drizzle. Later, I got up to go to the bathroom, and the fly was sagging in. Wondering why, I pushed out on it, and about an inch of snow slid off. Great! Snow! By morning, however, it quickly melted off, and the day was remarkably sunny. We dried the tent out, packed up and hiked back to the car. About the time we got there, it started raining.

We drove back to Spokane, again crossing the border without incident, to my amazement. We managed to stumble onto a free, Department of Natural Resources campground outside Spokane, and camped for the night. Friday, we went looking for TumTum Canyon, a climbing area described in Rock 'N' Road. With help from rockclimbing.com, we managed to find it. There didn't seem to be as much climbing there as the book suggested, but we did find some stuff to climb.

A 5.9-ish mixed climb at TumTum

After three climbs, it started raining and we called it a day. The following day, we headed to the Minnehaha climbing area near downtown Spokane. It is a pretty small crag with lots of top-roping, and some scary leads. This time, we managed four climbs before the rain hit.

The Dihedral (5.9+) at Minnehaha

We headed to David's Pizza in Spokane for dinner (awesome pizza!), then got a hotel room. Sunday morning, I dropped Eric off for his flight, got some more sleep, got an oil change and headed to Seattle to visit with Tom and Sarah. Soon, I'm off to Squamish....

Route List for 8/10-17:

• Lion's Way on Central Crescent Towers, Bugaboos (6 pitches, 5.6, Trad)
• Unknown easy dihedral, TumTum (5.4-ish Trad) (Onsight)
• Unknown bolted face climb, TumTum (5.10a-ish) (TR clean)
• Unknown mixed climb, TumTum (5.9-ish mixed) (Onsight)
• Unknown dihedral climb, right end of main wall, Minnehaha (5.6-ish Trad) (TR clean)
• The Dihedral, Main Wall, Minnehaha (5.9+ trad) (Hangdog)
• Unknown Face climb, left of The Diagonal, Main Wall, Minnehaha (5.10a-ish) (TR clean)
• The Diagonal, Main Wall, Minnehaha (5.8R Trad) (TR clean)