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moacman
Trad climber
Montana
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 17, 2010 - 07:17pm PT
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The first time I ventured into the Bugaboos of British Columbia I was sooo psyched. Just going up to the lodge in my mates Sunbeam Alpine on a washed out road was more than entertaining in it's self. Gearing up in the parking lot turned out to be even more interesting, I had forgotten the ropes! my responsibility in our climbing adventure. In the 70's we had no cell phones so we went into Hans Gmosers lodge to beg to make a call back to Calgary and then had to bribe a friend who was comming up the next day to porter our ropes up to Boulder Camp for us. Climbers that have been there know what a slog fest getting to Boulder can be, especially when it's 80+ degrees with clear blue skys. All went well. Our objective the next day was Pigeon Spire, what a great climb! until we summited, then the wrath of doom came upon us, Mother Nature had her own ideas. Dark clouds entered the scene accompanied by static electricity lifting our hair skyward and then rattleing our pins and biners. We scrambled scared sh*tless and just waited for the big one. And now it's just a storie..
What are some of your electrfying semi epic tales..
Climb hard and stay away from the lightning bolts....Cheers...
Stevo
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brat
climber
El Portal
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Apr 17, 2010 - 08:28pm PT
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Waited for a weather window in the Bugs last summer... did less committing climbs like Pigeon and McTech... finally the weather forcast looked good so we went for the NE Ridge of Bug Spire.
Weather rolled in out of nowhere while we were on the summit. Blue skies one minute, buzzing while lighting struck the South Summit next to us the next minute...
Waited for the storm to clean hunkered down under a space blanket... it didn't clear... about 6 pm started descending in the storm, still buzzing a lot of the time. Finally hit the Bug-Snowpatch Col at about 11... to find it being hammered by rockfall from the 10 hours of rain. Spent the most miserable night of my life sitting on a boulder on the col... complete with packrat chewing into my wag bag and my snacks.
The rain slowed at about 3, the sun rose on our horrid epic, and below us we see climbers already heading up the col to go climb Pigeon.
The gave us some dried bananas.
We hiked out that day, a day early, got a motel room and it was the only time in my life I've ever eaten a whole appetizer and main dish by myself.
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moacman
Trad climber
Montana
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 17, 2010 - 08:46pm PT
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That's a story never to be forgotten.......
Stevo
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Apr 17, 2010 - 11:50pm PT
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Working in a climbing shop in Vancouver many decades ago, and a guy walks in and lays a figure 8 on the counter. It was eaten through pretty badly, and he's wondering about a refund or a replacement.
Normally, it would be no deal, but the thing was obviously pretty new, just scoured down to the last few atoms of metal on both sides of the rope path. He said he'd climbed Bugaboo Spire (don't remember by what route, and everything went well until he hit the Bug/Snowpatch col on the descent. He rapped halfway down and when he was setting up to rap the last half he happened to look at his 8. Eaten almost through. So he turned it over and did the second rap with the rope taking the opposite path. Same result.
He said it was a wet day, with a lot of dirt in the snow, and the grit just ate through the metal.
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brat
climber
El Portal
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Apr 17, 2010 - 11:58pm PT
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Ghost, that's crazy!
As for the 1:30 turn around... it was about 12 when our storm hit.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Apr 18, 2010 - 12:09am PT
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First trip to the Bugs was 1972 in mid-Sept. Too much new snow and avalanche potential: to do much.
Second trip in -----1975? The first objective was E. ridge of Bugaboo. We stayed in the hut, and around 10:00 PM, after a great thunderstorm-------the door flew open.
Suddenly a pack flew through the portal, and landed in an open area. Then, the packs owner stomped into the hut and yelled: “I’m never f*#kin climbing in the Bugs again.”
He and his party were just down from the thunderstorm, and had climbed and survived: E. Ridge of Bugaboo, in a big lightning storm.
Of course, Chris Puchner and I had already committed to that route for the next day.
It froze hard overnight, and the rain-sodden snow was nearly ice at 3:00 AM.
We were slow getting to the route, slow climbing the route, and very slow down-climbing the frozen, ice-like snow from the Bugaboo Snowpatch col: with no crampons, one ice axe, and one alpine hammer between us. Of course, it was dark by then.
No thunderstorm that day.
Made it back to the hut by 2:00 AM.
Woohoo!
The next day: our buddies followed a guided party up the E. Ridge Bugaboo, and did hut to hut in exactly one-half the time Chris and I took.
F*#k em! We did it on our own, on ice-like frozen snow.
I was not so lucky with thunderstorms on later trips to the Bugs, but never got fried.
Unfortunately: climbers have died in the Bugs from lightning strikes.
Be careful up there.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Apr 18, 2010 - 12:12am PT
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Ghost, that's crazy!
Yeah, but true. The descent from the Bugaboo/Snowpatch col can be pretty gritty.
I've been shut out of climbing in the bugs by rain, and also had fabulous weather there. But fortunately never been hit by a T-storm.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Apr 18, 2010 - 12:26am PT
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Two of my three near-death experiences with lightning have been in the Bugaboos. A few years ago there was a lightning thread with many lurid stories on the subject.
Many seem to make the minor but potentially lethal error of treating climbing in the Bugaboos as rock climbs, rather than alpine climbs. I can't imagine going there without crampons, boots, helmet, and ice axe, but many do.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Apr 18, 2010 - 09:14pm PT
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Bug bad weather bump
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
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Just looking for a thread I can add this photo to ....
click photo to enlarge
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Alan and me tried to take the wives up Snowpatch. We tried too hard, or didn't try hard enough by starting early enough, and it got dark. Then it got really bright quite a few times and smelled funny. Then we almost drowned. Then we got back to the tent and somebody else invited himself into the tent after we'd fallen asleep. We chased him around and around but he couldn't find his entrance hole. Grrrrrr.
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
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Me grovelling as a teenage n00b in home made clothing on pigeon Spire in the '70's. Self sewn gortex jacket and wool knickers made from army pants
Less n00bish shot of the gorgeous classic, Chouinard Becky route, Howser Towers
click to enlarge
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Boulder Creek CA
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The first time I went into the Bugaboos, there were no maps, no lodge, no guides, no helicopters, no hut; just word-of-mouth from Becky, Chouinard, and Art Grand. There was only one other party camping there - Putnam's. We camped for days in pouring rain with only glimpses of the peaks. Our chief technical challenges were routing rain ditches around our tents. Then we got a few nicer days and grabbed a few ascents on the easier routes before we ran out of food and ambition. The trail out had fresh monstrous grizzly bear tracks.
On my next trip, years later, I took in my friends for filming 'Solo', and we got lucky on the weather.
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| Messages 1 - 13 of total 13 in this topic |
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