Jason and I began our hike to the Bugaboo-Crescent col at 4:30am, in the dark. We weaved around a bit, managing to navigate the longest and trickiest path around some lakes, until we finally ended up on the Crescent Glacier leading to the col. We saw only one party ahead of us, but there were plenty of headlights from parties behind us. We had some difficulty finding the right-slanting ramp up to the col in the dark, and by the time we found the giant cairn marking the base of the ramp, 4 parties were ahead of us. Here is a photo of the route one would ideally take to the col. It should take about 1 h 15 min to get to the base of the col, depending on hiking speed and darkness.
We put on our climbing shoes and started soloing up the low Class 5 ramp to the col. The rock here was loose, and we had to dodge a few rather large rocks kicked down by climbers above. I was frustrated that so many parties had passed us; add to this flying rocks, pressure from other parties behind us, and a rather intimidating looking climb now visible in the morning sun, and it was becoming quite the nerve-racking situation. Jason decided he would rather spend a relaxing day basking in the sun with the chipmunks at camp, so we started back to camp.
I was pretty disappointed, but as luck would have it, the last party approaching up the Crescent Glacier was a group of three. Perhaps they would like a fourth, Jason suggested. The three climbers turned out to be friendly French Canadians, and welcomed me to their team. I would climb with Nivea, a friendly 32-year-old field ecologist. And Jean-Michel and Hugo, two brothers, would share a rope. So I would get to climb the NE ridge afterall! We headed for the col, while Jason headed back to his sleeping bag, chipmunks, and Suduko.
By the time we made it to the top of the Bugaboo-Crescent Col, there were 6 parties ahead of us. Five of the parties were still on the ground. At 7:30am we were settling down for a long wait at the rope-up terrace. It was sunny, but the wind made it quite chilly. Below are photos of the crowds at the base as well as the view up the first and second pitches.
We waited at the base of the NE ridge for 3 hours (there was a slow trio at the front that was setting the pace for the day). For awhile, the French Canadians and I were the last climbers in line for the route, until two guys showed up, bemoaning a frustrating delay of getting off-route in the ascent up the col. Finally, at 10:30am, we were climbing. Jean-Michel and Hugo climbed ahead of Nivea and me (Jean-Michel led all their pitches, and Nivea and I swung leads, with me leading all the even-numbered pitches). The three French-Canadians were solid climbers and fun people to spend the day with, and I was glad they let me team up with them.
The first pitch was a fingery 5.8, apparently the crux pitch of the route (although I found the 5.6 crack of pitch 4 to be more difficult and the first pitch to be pretty easy). The second pitch was an undemanding 5.6 with shallow cracks and jugs. The third pitch began by downclimbing to the left from a pedestal, and then continued easily up to a tricky 5.7 step across a face. The fourth pitch was a 5.6 long right-facing shady corner (cold fingers!). The fifth pitch began as 5.6 and entered the long low class 5 chimney system. The sixth pitch was a couple ropelengths of simulclimbing up the easy 5th class chimney. The seventh pitch was a short climb around a corner with a 5.7 move. The eighth pitch was easy 3rd-5th class climbing along the ridge to the North summit. Below are photos of (1) the route up the NE ridge, and (2) the easy 5th class chimney system of the simulclimbed sixth pitch.
We reached the north summit at 4:45pm. From here, we made a short rappel down the east side of the spire, and then traversed across to underneath the south summit, where we had to make another short east-side rappel. The following photo shows the summit traverse.
We were still below the south summit, and we had the option of traversing around and doing the easy last pitch of the Kain Route, or we could avoid any further traversing and climb up the 5.7ish rock above us. We decided to head straight up. I led this short pitch. We reached the (higher) south summit (3204 m / 10,510 ft) at 6:30pm. Below is a photo of Nivea on the South summit, with Jean-Michel and Hugo in the background.
After sharing a summit Toblerone (these are my kind of climbers!), we began our rappel down the upper pitches of the Kain route. Fortunately, I had done this the day before (see my above report of my climb of the Kain route for a description of the descent), so there were no surprises and I knew we could be back at camp in 3.5 hours. Also, Jean-Michel had climbed the NE ridge before, so he led us unerringly down to the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col.
It didn’t get dark until we were on the snow heading down from the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col. From here, our camp was easy to find. Jason showed up to help us carry some of our gear back, and we made it back to camp by 10:15pm. I had been away from camp for 18 hours. The NE ridge is a long route, but it seems to me that the main reason to get an alpine start is to get ahead of the crowds! But the climb was certainly worth the waiting! Thanks to Nivea, Jean-Michel, and Hugo for letting me climb with them and sharing their summit chocolate.
