In 1972-1977 I (Manrico) was a student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. This was many years before I met Liz. In three of those summers I made short trips to the Bugaboo Range which is famous for its high quality rock climbs on big, alpine mountains.
In 1974 I went with Bob, George, and Howard all from Vancouver. We frankly found the area a bit overwhelming and intimidating. We did short, moderate (low-mid fifth class) climbs on Eastpost Spire and Pigeon Spire. We also attempted the Kain Route (Southwest Ridge) on Bugaboo Spire. The long Kain Route is almost all fourth class except for some low fifth class and one short but airy 5.6 class section. We backed off there even though we were all perfectly capable of climbing to that standard. However it’s one thing to climb 5.9+ on short climbs at the Squamish Chief right beside a highway and quite another to be doing long climbs on a big mountain.
In 1975 I hiked into the area by myself and wandered around taking pictures. I had hoped to meet people there to climb with but that didn’t work out. It snowed after only a couple of days bringing an end to that trip.
In 1976 went on a very short trip with Steve and Tabs who lived in Golden, BC. We climbed the magnificent Snowpatch Spire by Wiessner’s Route. That route goes by two other names: the Snowpatch Route and the Southeast Corner Route. With several 5.6+ class sections and mostly low-mid fifth class, this route is considerably harder than the Bugaboo Spire route we tried in 1974. I was climbing better in 1976 than in 1974. I also knew what to expect and was with a stronger team.
Now the photos which are Kodachrome transparencies scanned in 2021. Unfortunately many of the transparencies have degraded with time even though they were stored properly.
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