       
| APPROACHWe left Applebee Dome Camp at 4am. We climbed over the Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col, traversed across the Upper Vowell Glacier to the Pigeon-Howser Col, and dropped down into the East Creek Basin to access the beginning of the climb. It took 3.5 hours to get to the start of the ridge on South Howser Tower, and another hour to begin the roped climbing. Photos: 1. Applebee Camp and Snowpatch Spire in early morning. Alpine starts are key in the Bugaboos where the routes are long and afternoon storms are common. 2. Looking down the Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col. 3. Sunrise on the Upper Vowell Glacier. 4. Exchanging boots for approach shoes at the Pigeon-Howser Col . 5. The west side of Pigeon-Howser Col. 6. The East Creek Boulder Camp below the start of the Beckey-Chouinard route. 7. The Beckey-Chouinard route. 8. 1000ft of scrambling up the ridge to get to the roped climbing. |
 
| PITCHES 1-3Pitches 1-3 are mid-5th climbing on the ridge. Pitch 1: From a belay in small boulders step down right to gain an exposed slab on the right and climb cracks and flakes to a block belay on the ridge crest (5.5). Pitch 2: Climb up the ridge crest (5.5). Pitch 3: Where the crest steepens follow cracks and grooves left of the crest to a ledge belay behind a large block (5.7). The first photo shows Clint climbing Pitch 3. The second photo shows the view of the Minaret from Pitches 1-3. |
| PITCH 4Follow steep cracks just right of the crest to the left edge of a small overhanging bulge (fixed cam). Make an insecure move over the bulge and follow cracks past a horn to a step, small ledge belay (5.10-, 50m). The photo shows Steph just above the 5.10 bulge. |
| PITCH 5Climb cracks on the left side of the arête, stepping to the right side part way up and follow cracks to easy ground. Scramble over easy ground to gain a flake and a short chimney to the left, which leads to a slab belay, or belay on the crest (5.8, 60m). The photo shows Clint at the top of Pitch 5. Pitch 6 goes off to the right from here. |
| PITCH 6Handrail right over the arête and cross cracks to gain a big left-facing corner or climb directly up from the crest belay. Climb the corner to an alcove belay behind a jutting block (5.8, 60m). The photo shows Clint starting off Pitch 6. |
| PITCH 7We climbed Pitch 7 (as defined by the topo) in two pitches. Continue up the stellar corner to a crack and belay at the start of some scree-covered ledges (5.8, 60m). The photo shows Steph climbing up the upper part of Pitch 7, a strenuous and fun wide crack. I ended up wearing my approach shoes the entire route, mostly because I cringed at the thought of taking off my wool socks and sticking my feet in the cold rubber of my climbing shoes! But the approach shoes worked out great! |
| PITCH 8Scramble over scree and belay at the upper bivy site. The photo shows Steph at the belay at the bottom of Pitch 8. |
| PITCH 9Climb up a chimney and cracks over blocks to a block belay where the wall steepens (5.6). The photo shows Steph climbing up Pitch 9. |
| PITCH 10Step left to climb a short strenuous crack to a ledge. Go right past a flake to reach two opposing corners and climb the right-hand to the bivy ledges below the Great White Headwall. The photo shows Steph at the belay between Pitches 9 and 10. These shady belays were cold! |
  
| PITCH 11Pitch 11 starts up the Great White Headwall. Walk left to the furthest bivy site and climb up to a wide crack in the right facing corner at the far left side of the headwall. Climb the wide crack to the top of the small tower and continue up a corner crack system. Climb the corner until able to break out left and up a short, steep wall to a small ledge belay (5.10-, 55m). The first and second photos show the Great White Headwall. There are lots of cracks on the headwall that have yet to become routes. The third photo shows Clint climbing up Pitch 11, a wide crack. I found my approach shoes worked great for these wider cracks (I actually kept my approach shoes on the entire route, since they were working fine and are much warmer). |
 
| PITCH 12We climbed Pitch 12 (as defined by the topo) in two pitches. Step up above the belay and make a hard balance move right back into the corner. Follow the corner past the guillotine blocks and a tough squeeze. Move to a belay at the start of a steep gully (5.9, 60m). (Cracks on the left wall can be climbed at 5.10 to avoid the corner, but we climbed the corner.) The first photo shows Steph climbing up the first half of Pitch 12. The second photo was taken looking up the second half of Pitch 12, where we hauled packs to be able to climb through the awkward squeeze. |
| PITCH 13Climb up the gully over chock stones to where it steepens into a capped corner. Climb the second crack on the left wall to a belay at the base of a long, shallow, right-facing corner (5.9, 60m). The photo shows the view from the upper pitches on the route. It got dark soon after we finished Pitch 12, so we didn’t take any photos. |
| PITCH 14Follow the corner to a two-pin belay at a small notch (5.8, 30m). |
| PITCH 15Tension left (A0) into a gully (or free at 5.10+) and follow it to a belay at its top (5.6). |
| PITCHES 16-20From the top of the gully, step down right to gain rappel slings and make a 20m rappel to ledges on the south side. Climb up and right around two indistinct buttresses to gain the ridge just right of the summit. This is about 200m of steep and broken fourth-class terrain with numerous short, mid-fifth class steps. Bivy sites are possible through here and near the summit. The rappels start about 20m south of the summit where most parties emerge from the broken terrain. Due to the dark and because we were tired, we pitched out this section instead of simulclimbing. It took quite awhile since it was difficult to route-find in the dark. |
 
| ON THE SUMMIT
We arrived on the summit at 1:15am, about 17 hours after we started the roped climbing. Although it was a bit chilly, we were lucky to have no rain for our climb. We did not have any bivy gear and thought it would be best to keep moving because of the cold, so we began the rappels down the east face in the dark. |
  
| DESCENT
We rapped down the east face of South Howser Tower. We got one of our two ropes stuck in a flake on the third rappel, so we had to cut the rope and continue rapping with a single rope. We managed to find sling anchors every 30m. We were worried that we would not be able to make it over the bergschrund with a single 60m rope, but someone had extended a line of rope to the last rappel anchor, and we added on the remaining half of the rope we had cut and were able to rappel past the bergschrund onto the snow below. Less than 2 hours later, we were diving into our sleeping bags at Applebee. Photos: 1. Clint setting up to rappel over the bergschrund from the end of a fixed rope extended from the last rappel anchor. 2. The rappel route down the east face of South Howser Tower. It can be done with a single 60m rope, although two ropes are usually required to get past the bergschrund (unless the anchor is extended by a fixed line as it was in our case). 3. Our second sunrise of the climb. A good way to end a long and stellar climb! |
