Early season in the Bugaboos

After spending a few weeks climbing, hiking and hanging out around Powell River, I met up with Kevin, Paul and Sue to spend a week in my favorite climbing place, the Bugaboos! Late June/early July is a bit early for the Bugs, but we went for it anyways. 
Sadly weeks of excellent weather in BC came to end right when I picked up Kevin and Sue in Vancouver. But despite lots of rain, we ended up having a pretty fun little trip.

The gang Paul, me, Kevin and Sue! Photo credit - Paul Souza

We drove from Vancouver to Lillooet where we met up with Paul. The plan was to start by climbing a massive sport route called "the Goat", but up by Danny O'Farrell, one of Kyle's friends. Too bad it poured rain! 

The goat - in a shroud of cloud, rain and mist

To keep on schedule and get away from the rain we had to forego climbing the goat and headed towards Golden, BC and the Bugs. On the way, the weather cleared so we stopped on the side of highway 1 outside of Kamloops to do a bit of sport climbing at one of the local crags

Sue - getting ready to climb in Kamloops

Pretty climbing spot near Kamloops

The climbs were pretty fun, well bolted sport routes on basalt with nice soft "vacation grades". We all took turns, climbing a bunch of easy 5.10s and I took a crack at 5.11a. 

Sue working through the crux on a fun sport route near Kamloops

After a few hours of climbing in the sun, we headed off and made our way to Golden, in order to get supplies and head into the Bugs for the real climbing.

Pee break on the way to the Bugs - Photo credit - Sue Song.

Despite a gloomy forecast we headed down the long logging roads to the Bugaboos parking lot. When we arrived I was shocked to see how empty the lot was, I guess that's the advantage of arriving early season! We wrapped the cars in the obligate chicken wire to protect them from porcupines, and started the hike into the Bugs. 

Protecting the car

The hike in is short, but steep and fairly grueling with heavy packs. The scenery is top notch however, so makes it bearable.

Approaching the Bugs

Almost up...

When we had arrived and saw the near empty lot, we made the (foolish) choice to ditch the tents and try and stay in the hut! Boy was that a mistake, we got up to the hut it was full of parks personnel who were there on a maintenance weekend to get everything ready for the coming season. 

They were not too happy to see us... and were not psyched on us trying to stay at the hut. Sooooo... I dropped my heavy pack, grabbed my empty day pack and hiked all the way back down to the car to grab the tents. sigh. I got to do the approach twice in a day.

After that fiasco, we decided to stay at the boulder campground, which actually lies below the hut, and ended up staying the entire trip.

The next day we slept in (a habit we never really broke all trip.) and decided to head up to climb the Kain route on Bugaboo spire. 

Views on the approach to Bugaboo spire. The hut is in the lower bottom. 

I climbed the Kain route back in 2016 with Kyle, but it was still a fun outing.  The approach is a bit of a slog, you hike up Bugaboo-Snowpatch col and then start out on the ridge. 

Heading up the col

Bathroom with the best view on the planet

Snowpatch and Howser towers from the top of the col

I was hurting a bit on the approach, but after taking a moment too chill, I started to feel better. And once the slogging ended and the scrambling and soloing on the ridge began, I felt better and better.

Me - feeling the suffering - Photo credit - Kevin J. 

Susan on the knife edge, right before the start of the roped climbing

Kevin is psyched, and ready to rope up

After maybe 1000' of scrambling and soling a couple of easy low 5th class pitches, we reached the base of the roped climbing. It's very easy, but the crux is a highly enjoyable and very exposed 5.6 slab move. Fun!

Start of the roped pitches

Looking up towards the roped pitches on the Kain route

Susan on the crux slab of the Kain route

We chilled on the summit for a bit, then began the raps and down climbing to get us back to camp. 

Summit glory!

Paul looking casual on the summit

Heading down

We made it back to camp just around dusk. yikes! 

The next day Susan, Kevin and I climbed Lion's way on Crescent towers. This is another route I had done before, but it was still a fun casual outing.

Kevin and Sue - You could not asked for more stoked partners!

Kevin lading a pitch on Lion's way

Me leading a pitch - why is my harness such a shit show> - Photo credit - Kevin J.

Susan nearing the top of Lion's way - Photo credit - Kevin J. 

Kevin models on the summit of Lion's way

Back at camp we busted out some beer and a giant brownie to celebrate Kevin's Bday! Pretty cool place to spend you birthday! 

Birthday cake?

Sadly after that the bad weather rolled in and that was pretty much it for the Bugaboos. I'm a bit bummed I didn't get to climb anything new, but it was still a pretty fun little trip. 

We packed up and headed to the Vancouver area for a bit of sport climbing, which ended up pretty fun

Breakfast - photo credit Kevin J.

Camera tilt - photo credit - Kevin J. 

It was great to climb with Paul, Kevin and Sue, looking forward to our next trip!

Eldred Valley and Powell River

After wrapping up teaching a summer intersession course, Teresa, Penny and I packed up the Subaru and headed up to the BC coast for 3 weeks of climbing, hiking, family visiting and general vacationing. We spent 3 days in Squamish, where we did some fun cragging on the Smoke Bluffs, and I met up with an old climbing friend of mine (JP) to climb the Chief via. Rock on and a weirdo adventure hike/via ferrata. 

We then grabbed the ferry up to the Sunshine Coast for a couple of weeks in Powell River

Waiting for the ferry to the Sunshine Coast

In addition to being Teresa's home town, Powell River has a host of excellent climbing, and I was pretty excited to check some of it out!

New guidebook for the area

First up was Higgyland, a steep granite sport crag 5 minutes away from Teresa's family house. Sweet! I ended up spending a fair amount of time there, and eventually working on a 5.11b redpoint in between beer drinking sessions ;)

Teresa cranks some steep granite at Higgyland

Hanging with my niece

In addition to some fine climbing there is excellent hiking and mountaineering in the Powell River area. Most famous is the Sunshine Coast trail, a 180 km hut-to-hut trail that passes not only along the coast but up to the alpine of the coast range. Over the years I have hiked various pieces of it, but had not gone up Tin Hat mountain, a very popular day hike to a nice high point with some fine views. 

 Penny and I headed down the long logging road approach, and after a fair amount of difficulty I found the trail head. The hike was well marked, on an excellent trail, and as promised, the views from the top of Tin Hat were wonderful.

Penny enjoyed the hike up Tin Hat

 

Views from the top of Tin Hat

 

Hut on Tin Hat

On the last few days of (my) stay in Powell River, we finally headed into the famous Eldred Valley, the crown jewel of Powell River climbing. Its a valley accessed by a 2 hour drive down active logging roads, to a place with multiple 2000+ foot granite faces and alpine peaks. 

A small piece of the Eldred Valley

 Teresa and I took the long drive in on a Sunday night to avoid logging traffic, and stayed at the wonderful climber's camp. The camp has been built by the volunteer efforts of local climbers and is a amazing place. The camp is nestled in the temperate rain forest, next to the roaring Eldred river. The camp is maintained as a labor of love, and a tribute to the local climber and Eldred valley pioneer Colin Dionne, who was tragically killed in a helicopter crash in 2011.

 

Giant tarp at the Eldred Valley climber's camp

 Teresa and I opted to climb the trade route, Schizophrenia (III, 5.10-), a 12 pitch, 2000 foot route up Psyche slab. The route featured mixed protection, some interesting cracks, tricky friction climbing and a thought provoking crux on P2. I led all the pitches, and we had the entire route to ourselves. Amazing

Psyched to be on Psyche slab!

 

Long pitches of friction climbing

Teresa tops out on Psyche slab

We spent the last few days in Powell River climbing some more at Higgyland, hiking and doing a but of trail running. I packed up and headed to Vancouver to meet up with Kevin, Paul and Susan -- time to head into the Bugaboos for a while...... Trip report on the way!

Big Sleep - Gumby's Adventure

With my summer teaching ending, and my year long sabbatical officially starting, I was eager to get out and celebrate with some rock climbing! Teresa and I both love Big Sleep, a 1000' tall slab up on Shuteye Ridge

Big Sleep!

 I have climbed Big Sleep a bunch of times, usually by the trade routes - Afternoon Nap (II, 5.6) or Moonlight Madness (II, 5.8), this time we decided to try a different route, Gumby's Adventure on the Crystal Highway (II, 5.9 R). The route followed a dike and vein of quartz up the big slab. The route was pretty run-out on the slab, with 50-80 run-outs between bolts, but the climbing was very easy.

Teresa coming up the crystal highway

I'm psyched to be back on Big Sleep

Because the route was so run-out I actually missed a belay station, blow right by it, and ended up having to belay on a single bolt after simul-climbing a bit (oops!)
Teresa had a great time and even took the sharp end on one of the run-out pitches. Go Bunner!

Teresa on the sharp end

The crux pitch went up a flake on the head-wall. It was rated 5.9, but felt a bit easier. The flake was a bit spooky, I placed gear but I'm not sure if the flake would have stayed on if I blow it! After that it was run-outs on a sea of knobs. Fun times!

Crux. Flake is off to the right and merges into the runnel above.

We topped out and rapped down Afternoon Nap. What a great way to start my sabbatical and a god warm up for our 3 week trip to BC

Top out!

Pine Creek Canyon

I met up with Dave again for a nice weekend of climbing near Bishop. Dave is a very psyched Med student who is doing rotations in Bakersfield. I had met up with him a few weeks earlier for some climbing in Kernville, we got along well, so decided to venture onto some larger climbs.

We originally planned to go into the Needles, but the road was still closed, so we ended up going to Pine Creek Canyon, an area I have yet to explore.

Sierra Eastside - always lovely.

 We drove up to Bishop Friday night, and found ourselves a nice BLM site to camp at Horton creek

Camping

 On our first day we went into PSOM slab, which has a collection of moderate multi-pitch routes. 

PSOM slab

 First up was PBR street gang, a 5 pitch 5.9. Dave was psyched, so he led the whole think. The climb was mostly easy with a short very fun 5.9 section. Good times!

Dave through the crux

 We were the first at the crag that morning, but once we were a few pitches up lots of people arrived. The combination of well protected climbing, multi-pitch and lots of moderates certainly brought out the crowds! Luckily we avoided the shit show, and were rapping down by the time the shit show was moving up. 

The PSOM shit-show

We took a short break, and then started up my objective for the day, The John Fisher Memorial route, a 7 pitch 5.10c.  It was my turn for the lead, and I led the entire 700 foot route. It was very nice, every pitch as 5.10 and the crux was an excellent finger crack. Very fun, and very well protected, so not very stressful.

Me on the sharp end

 

Hi Dave!

 We topped out around 5 PM, savored the views of the canyon, and then started the 7 rappels back to the ground.

View from up on the PSOM slab

 The next day we went to the even more busy Pratt's Crack area. This is the main event for Pine Creek Canyon, and I can see why, the climbing there is world class.

Pratt's Crack is the giant crack splitting the dihedral

Dave was dying to climb Pratt's Crack, a 165' off-width. So he grabbed the # Merlin cam and had at it!

#8!

 Dave pushed the #8 up the whole way, did a great job. Its a committing and full body climb. Good work Dave!

Dave fighting his way up Pratt's crack

 Afterwards I took caught some air on some sport climbs on the Moustache wall, and then we had to begin the long drive back to the Western slopes. Great weekend, I'm looking forward to climbing again with Dave, and climbing at Pine creek again some time!