I guided in the Bugaboos from August 10-15 and made ascents of Lion's Way, the
West Ridge of Pigeon Spire, the Northwest Ridge of Eastpost Spire and the Kain
route on Bugaboo Spire; all of these routes were in great shape. Of note was a
rockfall event that we witnessed while gearing up on the glacier below the
Bugaboo/Snowpatch Col at about 6:30 am on Monday morning, August 12th. A hot
tub sized boulder, along with an accompaniment of cooler sized rocks tumbled
free from the Bugaboo side. The hot tub strafed a perfect mid line trench down
the switchbacks that everyone uses to access the col. It did an impressive
triple gainer when it hammered into the exposed rock pile towards the bottom of
the slope and then smacked a crater into the snow and etched a trough to a
stop. We chose not to ascend the common steps and set steps up the Snowpatch
side, which had little evidence of rockfall (I repeated this tactic on our
approach to the Kain Route). We kept tight to Snowpatch and ga
zed into it's moat on several switchbacks and it felt much less exposed
although it is steeper and there are no deep steps. We rappelled the Snowpatch
rappels down the other side of Snowpatch on our descent from Pigeon Spire, no
rockfall there.
Happy trails,
Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
www.barryblanchard.ca
www.yamnuska.com
_______________________________________________
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