Chad and I were up early, departing our east creek bivy site
shortly after 4am under socked-in foggy conditions. We hoped it would burn off with sunrise as we
cruised the 1000ft of scrambling to the base of the route. I linked the initial 2 5.5 pitches with
approach shoes and gloves still on due to the cold and windy conditions. Despite the cloud cover, cold and wind, we
continued upwards, both wearing all the layers we had brought (base layer, R1,
puffy and shell). Maintaining feeling in
fingers and toes became a challenge as the pitches went by and despite the
perfect forecast, the sun remained predominately veiled by the clouds and the
winds continued to whip.
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| pitch 3 with a good perspective of the day's visibility |
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| the great dihedral looms above |
We lost some time and got passed by another party on pitch 6
as I lead us up an attractive splitter left of the great dihedral which started
as great 5.8 finger/hands but slowly deteriorated into 5.hard tips and then
into a mere seam. I pendulumed over to
the great dihedral before leading the stellar pitch 7 – most of a rope length
of sustained 5.8 hands in a corner. At
the pitch 8 ledges we discussed bailing but ultimately decided to continue
upwards and reassess at big sandy ledge below pitch 11 and the start of the
great white headwall. Time was wasted
as I got us off-route again on pitch 10, following another party up a clean
L-facing corner located too far R of the actual route that was much harder than
expected. After a few unsuccessful
attempts to pull a small roof/bulge of .75 size crack, I pulled on some gear to
get through it and continued up to a belay on big sandy ledge.
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| the great white headwall pokes through the clouds |
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| unknown height on the beckey chouinard - hood and gloves were worn whenever you weren't climbing and sometimes when you were (photo: chad hiatt) |
The gorgeous headwall above would disappear and reappear as
the clouds swirled overhead. The lure of
the summit would urge us upwards despite the continued shivering belays and
lack of forecasted sunshine. The
remaining 5 pitches were Chad’s lead block but he hadn’t been feeling great all
day and was forced to end pitches 11 and 12 early due to cramping in his hands
and biceps. From a hanging belay on the
headwall atop our pitch 12 (closer to topo pitch 11), we realized we had put
ourselves in a bit of a predicament.
Chad’s cramping and overall feelings of mediocrity along with our mutual
feelings of fatigue made us begin to question our ability to safely get off the
route, knowing from this height the fasted way down was likely up.
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pitch 13 with snow/ice in the gully
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Just then, the leader of the party behind us attempted to
pass our hanging belay but was clearly having his own issues with fatigue as he
was visibly shaking and on the verge of taking a large fall. He franticly told us he was about to fall and
asked if he could clip our anchor and we obliged, passing him an alpine draw to
clip his rope moments before he cut loose from the wall and fell. As he (Neil) hung on the rope and rested and
expressed similar feelings of fatigue and concern over getting off the route,
we formulated a rough plan to band together as a party of 4 to ensure we all got
off safely. I proceeded to lead the next
pitch (12) while Neil rested who would then lead pitch 13. I was forced to hang twice from gear (not
wanting to fall), due to the nasty combo of fatigue in the forearms and
numbness in my fingers and hands due to the cold.
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| the top couple hundred feet of the S howser tower, route is low 5th class on looker's R |
Our system involved the leader belaying 2 seconds from above
for a given pitch, followed by one of them leading the next pitch while the
other belayed the fourth and final climber up the preceding pitch. Due to snow and ice in the dihedral of the
great white headwall, we were forced to climb the excellent splitters on the
face to the left. Neil lead a 60m rope
stretcher for pitch 13, I lead a short pitch 14 and Neil led the final pitch,
shamelessly tensioning the crux (5.10+ free) due to time’s sake. A short rappel put us below the final few
hundred feet of low 5th class terrain to the summit, which we found
partially covered it snow and ice. We
soloed what we could but felt the need to simul a lot of it for safety
sake. We finally found ourselves atop
the south howser tower at nearly 9:30pm, a little too tired and concerned about
the descent to fully appreciate the moment.
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| forcing a smile atop the south howser tower (photo: chad hiatt) |
Our motto for the 11 rappel descent was safety over speed
but by leapfrogging our way down with 4 ropes, our pace seemed reasonable (2.5
hours). There were numerous moments that
felt like we were in Patagonia with the wind hollowing, some rain and even snow
showers blowing through as we made rappel after rappel via headlamp down
towards the dark glacier. Once over the
bergschrund and on the glacier at approximately midnight, we coiled ropes and
were thrilled to have footprints to follow around the crevasses to the
pigeon-howser col. From the col, we made
the easy descent down to east creek, Chad and I arriving at our spot
approximately 21 hours since leaving.
Our hot and salty freeze-dried dinners tasted live heaven before we
crawled into our tent and collapsed to bed.
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| leaving east creek in the morning |
We awoke to beautiful blue skies in the morning (go figure)
and one of the first things Chad and I expressed to each other was concern over
permanent damage to our respective toes (thankfully they made a full
recovery). After a lazy morning of
sleeping in, drying gear in the sun and breaking camp, we hiked up to the col
to the base of pigeon spire, unable to forgo a beautiful day on the “world’s
best 5.4” despite our feelings of overall fatigue as well as significant swelling in our
fingers and toes.
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| W ridge of pigeon with S howser tower in the background |
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| hanging out atop pigeon spire |
The W ridge was easy but exposed scrambling that we felt
comfortable soloing in approach shoes (mostly 3rd & 4th
class with a few spots of low 5th).
The views from along the route in every single direction on a clear day
were outstanding – easily the best views of the trip. It was a real joy to be out on such an easy
route, in the warm sun in contract to the previous day. We were back at our packs in about an hour
and continued our trek to the BS col and to applebee. With rain in the forecast for the following
day, Chad and I decided to depart in the morning, pretty damn content with our
trip. We climbed 5 routes on 5 spires,
including two mega classics (NE ridge bugaboo & beckey chouinard) and a
mere half day of tentbound bad weather. That final evening I scrambled up the NW ridge
of eastpost spire above camp alone, where I spent at least half an hour on the
summit soaking in the views and reflecting on my first bugaboo experience.
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| soaking it all in atop pigeon spire (photo: chad hiatt) |
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| drying gear and swapping stories back at applebee (photo: chad hiatt) |
Rose: the combination of great weather, great climbing and
great position on the NE ridge of bugaboo spire made it my favorite of the
routes we did
Thorn: hours and hours of shivering on the beckey chouinard
Bud: returning not only for more climbing but also someday
in the spring for the classic bugaboo to rogers pass ski traverse
Thoughts: we had a small margin for safety on the beckey
chouinard route considering the conditions we encountered and the fact that we
both had to belay/climb every pitch wearing every layer we had brought. Fortunately we made it down safety but we
spent many hours flirting with the necessary ingredients for an epic. It would be great to return someday with
improved climbing fitness/endurance and send the route in better style and
better weather
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