My fellow Yamnuska guide, Cory Boschman, and I just had the good fortune of near-perfect weather and conditions for the last 6 days in the Bugaboos.
Between 29 July and 3 August, daytime temps at the Kain Hut ranged from 15-20C and 5-10C overnight. There was haze from the Verdant fire throughout the week, but it mostly just made for some amazingly atmospheric sunrise photos. The exception was on the 2nd when the wind shifted overnight and the smoke became fairly thick with only the higher spires poking through, but this retreated again yesterday. Otherwise, the skies were almost continuously bluebird and the winds calm to light all week. Contrary to reports over the last few weeks, the insects weren’t much of an issue for us.
Even with all the prolonged heat, everywhere our group went on the Bugaboo, Vowell and Crescent glaciers we found settled, supportive snow coverage, with ice just beginning to show now at 2600m (aspect and angle dependent). Despite the high temps and particulate, there were still mild overnight radiative refreezes, so morning travel conditions were fast on the flats but still soft enough to be easy on the steeps, and even in the afternoons foot penetration up to 3000m was rarely more than 10cm. Crevasses are also still well bridged, with the routefinding feeling more like the casual straight-shot of early July than the trapped-rat-in-a-maze of the last few Augusts there.
In addition to our travel around the glaciers, we climbed routes on Pigeon, Bugaboo and Hounds Tooth Spires and the Crescent Towers, with perfect conditions. The hut and campgrounds were bursting, and other folks were climbing pretty much everything, everywhere with nothing but good conditions reports. The sole exceptions were a couple of cornice issues, with recent failures of remnants on the summit ridges of the Howser Towers (including off the South Tower near the descent track) and a small lip that’s wavering over the bergschrund crossing at the base of the West ridge of the Marmolata, which caused one of our groups to go to Plan B. There were no recent signs of avalanche activity, just a couple of old scars on SE aspects in the Bugaboo Glacier basin from slabs that failed to ice a while back.
The BS Col still felt as safe as it gets these days, with snow coverage for all but the last few gravelly meters. Rockfall was minor and mostly climber generated. There are a couple of hints of crevasses now, and although the bergschrund is starting to smirk at the edges, it’s as yet without any human-shaped holes in the center. Currently, there is a somewhat supportive track in with many folks still feeling comfortable climbing down rather than rappelling. Several parties did take long unplanned glissades in the rotting afternoon snow while we were there, however, and although we saw more tanned gamblers in hi-tops and tank tops than a downtown Vegas casino, we were still happy to have full boots and crampons underfoot.
Overall, the best conditions I’ve experienced in the Bugs in ages.
Carl Johnston
ACMG Alpine & Rock Guide
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures