The Bugaboos Provincial Park is located in the Purcell Mountains, southeast of British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada. It is a beautiful destination for fans of fissures and alpine climbing, as well as nature lovers. With large granite walls surrounded by cracked glaciers and peaks that exceed 3,000 meters in altitude, it is a place that inspires the visit of many climbers and mountaineers from around the world.
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| The Bugaboos Canada |
For the summer of 2016 we had set ourselves a goal to climb the Rocky Mountains (Canada). Since I set foot in this mountain range in winter 2008, I was fascinated by the immense and wildness of the place. I was left with that bug of going back and I had decided to return to climb in the summer and get to know the Bugaboos Park, a reference destination among the North American climbing community.
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| The Bugaboos Canada |
Oscar Gogorza was the one who promoted the idea, while we were climbing one spring afternoon on the walls of the Mugarra. Between pasting and pasting the different projects, we were shaping a journey that we shared with three other colleagues. Arkaitz Saiz, Ruben Gudino and Jorge Valle, which is the same as a "Guipuzkoan, a Bilbao, and a Madrilenian." The latter could not attend due to a broken hand, two days before flying.
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| The Bugaboos Canada |
It was strange for me not to be guiding in Chamonix, the year had been long, working a lot with the training and this summer was going to be different, I needed a bit of disconnecting. It was the first summer of the last fifteen that I was not going to be campaigning in the Alps, guiding clients who are already great friends after many years tied to the other end of the rope and I remembered all the colleagues and the good times that we have shared together.
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| The Bugaboos Canada |
In mid-July we depart from the Loiu airport (Bizkaia) Arkaitz Saiz and the one who subscribes. As usual the weight in the suitcases is the reason for conversation while we queue at 5:00 in the morning at the KLM terminal. Luckily we have a hostess who studied with me in high school, that would make things easier for us in this beginning of the trip.
By the time we want to realize and after more than 20 hours of travel, we are on route 1 towards Banff, our first destination as soon as we land. The rain and low temperatures are the keynote of these first days. The locals tell us that spring has been very rainy and that this adverse weather is not very normal. We spent the first week hiking a bit around Canmore and making old friends.
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| The Bugaboos Canada |
Steve Holezki is a colleague with whom I have shared very good times during the summers in Chamonix. He is a Canadian guide and works in the rescue within Banff / Jasper National Park. Who better than Steve to provide us with first-hand information. We stayed several afternoons and helped by various guides and maps, he was giving us homework for the next ten years… hehehe Each sector that you comment looks better than the previous one.
A few quiet days are good for us to make ourselves on time and locate ourselves in the area. This is immense and we have to focus on making a plan for the next two weeks, since Oscar and Rubén come at the beginning of August with a fixed idea, climbing in Bugaboos.