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grover
Mar 7, 2007, 3:48 AM
Post #1 of 9
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Registered: Dec 17, 2002
Posts: 569
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"Hey JR, feel like a trip into the Bugs?"
"Ya sure, never been"
"Your gonna love it man, was in the East creek basin
under the Howsers last year and it looks like you could get in from the west no sweat"
"The west huh? how long for the approach"
"6....8 hours tops... scoped it out last week"
"Sweet.........!"
After work we leave Castlegar B.C, 2.5 hrs on pavement, then 2 more on logging roads and we arrive at Rory Creek.
Day 1:
How do ya like your eggs Johnny?
An hour in and the defunked logging road turns into an Alder-Bashing-Fest.
Rory Creek bridge......
Above the Alders and into an old burn.
After the burn up the burn, we reach a ridge used for Heli-hiking with the Bugs finally in view.
At this point my 6-8 hour guesstimate was proven wrong. Nothin an hour nap wouldn't cure. From the col we had to descend close to a 1000 ft then back up to the col in the center of the photo.
Only to see!!!!!!!!
13 hours in and we call it a day. Nothing like soft meadow grass under yer back after a long haul.
Day 2:
Breakfast...then this for dessert!
3.5 hours later and we make it to camp, and the bivy boulder is all ours.
A little bit of food.....
Then the other dessert.....
Day 3:
We cast off to the Howsers east side.
Passing the Howser/Pigeon col.
There she be, Kains 19frickin16 line up the North Howser, (center of photo). He guided 4 folks up it in 20 hours horse to horse, back when there was not even a trail leading to the present day hut.
Almost at the schrund......
Pitch 2, looking north at the Vowell range. Kains line was melted out, so we veer out left onto the north ridge line of the central Howser.
A few more pitches and we make it to the south ridge of the north Howser. The 2 adjoining peaks are Crossed Fish Tower and Little Snowpatch.
"Hey Johnny did you hear that thunder?"
This is what the Central/South Howsers look like before being engulfed in snow and massive lightning.
The storm starts to circle us, so we book it for the summit.
As we top-out, shit hits the fan with heavy snow and lightning strikes every few seconds. We backtrack a bit, get off the ridge proper and strip-off all hardware, stash it under a boulder and hunker down.
There is way too much electricity in the air to chance a descent so we give the fireworks an hour to fizzle out.
When the time comes we avoid searching for the proper descent, and head back a pitch to look for a slung horn and biner draped over the ridge. We barely
spot it with all the new snow, tie our 2 cords together and waste no time rapping off.
A few raps in, showing my elated state of not being on the ridge any longer.
4 raps later we are just over the schrund, SWEET... only to find our stiff cords stuck after 2 pulls. Not so sweet.
We try everything and after a long time we cut 30ft off each end in fear of being buried by the growing snowpack.
A salute to the rope stealing gods....... 
Visibility is now next to nil. With the help of 1-2 seconds windows the next 6 hours are spent trying to find the col. With the new snow too light to dig, we find a small rock cave at the glaciers edge and excavate for an hour.
Our night is a long one without bivy gear in our tiny cave. With knees to our chests we spend most of the night catching drips of our condensed breathe in a bottle. Yummy!!!
Day 4:
The storm lingers for yet another day. This morning is a replay of yesterdays low-vis game of see-and-run!
After 4 hours of searching for a way off the glacier we stagger back into camp.
Within minutes the skies open up........
After sympathy burritos and BEER!!!!!! from Coloradans Bruce and Chris we crash in an extra food tent with snoring Alaskan Mike.
Day 5:
With ropes chopped and feet numb our time here is over.
We wish the lads good-luck on freeing their new line up the Minaret and head down towards East Creek.....
To speed things up we strapped on some heli-skiing markers but the wax was all wrong.
JR tried his luck with the good ole alpine tuck....
and I failed to link even one tele-turn.
I think I see the car from here!!!
Hour 9 and things get a little hazy.......
Finally at the rig after 10.5 hours, stoked, but only because we found our creek stashed........
....BEER.........
.....to pour over our battered......
.....for the ride home.
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brent_e
Mar 7, 2007, 4:05 AM
Post #2 of 9
(1981 views)
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Registered: Dec 15, 2004
Posts: 5111
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Mark,
feckin great story, man!!! Sounds like an awesome and spicy trip!
Thanks a tonne for sharing!
Brent
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shu
Mar 7, 2007, 5:14 AM
Post #3 of 9
(1934 views)
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Registered: Dec 29, 2004
Posts: 44
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Sweet Car!
My first car was one of those in off-White.
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macherry
Mar 7, 2007, 6:02 AM
Post #4 of 9
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Registered: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 15848
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nice one grover!!!
cheers
marge
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bbirtle
Mar 7, 2007, 11:01 AM
Post #5 of 9
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Registered: Jan 28, 2007
Posts: 102
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Nice! 
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superbum
Mar 15, 2007, 5:18 AM
Post #6 of 9
(1690 views)
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Registered: Sep 19, 2002
Posts: 822
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Fuck you for making me want to go even more!...My partner bailed on me and I gotta find someone else before the summer ends! Anyone wanna get spanked in the Bugs w/ me?
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nthusiastj
Mar 15, 2007, 2:32 PM
Post #7 of 9
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Registered: Sep 3, 2002
Posts: 1994
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Nice TR! That shot hiking out through the meadow is sweet.
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reno
Mar 15, 2007, 2:53 PM
Post #8 of 9
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Registered: Oct 30, 2001
Posts: 18283
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That's a fantastic read with some really good pictures. Thanks for sharing!
(Damnit, now I want to go to the Bugs.)
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epoch
Moderator
Mar 15, 2007, 3:32 PM
Post #9 of 9
(1618 views)
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Registered: Apr 28, 2005
Posts: 32163
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Awesome TR. I felt the pain.
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