We drove in from the West, arriving late at some cabins in Golden for the night, which seemed to have more mosquitoes inside than out.

The road conditions were manageable, but it seems like they have to do routine maintenance as someone was working on a section. We dragged the trailer hitch a few times. Windows of peaks poking through.

All loaded up and ready to hit the trail.

We wrapped the car in chicken wire, zip tying pool noodles along the top to prevent scratches on the new car. Most people wrapped their cars, but some people opted to not use wire and seemed to make it out fine.

The Approach

The packs were heavy from the start, but the true weight wouldn’t be realized until the first steep section, only a small taste of the overall elevation left to gain.

It ended up being a warm day, with full sun for long sections of time.

Breaking out into the open fields with views of Hounds Tooth on the left and Snowpatch Spire on the right.

The views were breathtaking, but also a good excuse to catch our breath as we took in the sights and tried to identify peaks and routes to get our bearings.

Arriving at Camp

We stopped by the hut to rest before the final push up to camp, getting to meet mostly hikers and people just wanting to stay in the hut.

At Applebee camp there were hangers to keep the packs up and away from the small critters. They filled up fast, so it was a bit of a learning curve on when it was best to have your pack up and when to take it down to arrange gear.

Settling down after setting up camp and discussing the next day’s objective.

The toilet was surprisingly nice, with one of the best views I’ve ever had. If only there wasn’t a stream of melting snow you had to stand by while waiting in line to pee.

Climbing Lion’s Way

We had talk to some people that tried Lion’s Way (5.6) the day before and got off route into some nasty sounding kitty litter, but luckily they gave us some tips to find the start and at least avoid what they did.

We hiked around the lake, taking in the views, getting to the start fairly easily with the beta we got. I took the first two pitches, and after a little faffing back an forth trying to decipher the topo, I finally committed to the linking the second pitch. It ended up using all the rope to get to where I could set up an anchor so we had to simul a little, but it wasn’t really an issue.

The rest of the pitches were pretty straight forward, varied, and a lot of fun. We picked our way through, taking in the view along the way.

We paused on the summit, getting a lay of the land and piecing together all the routes we had researched. We also watched the clouds from the incoming storm that was in the forecast roll in.

The descent was fairly trivial as we worked our way down, finding the rap rings that dropped us on the the snow, where we plunge stepped back down the way we approached in the morning.

We arrived back at camp just in time for the wind to kick up, so we scurried to make sure our tents were secured, as it had become obvious the weak points. Some of the other tents were not fairing well, one almost blew away but was luckily saved by someone.

We watched lightning in the distance and it didn’t take long for hail to start falling. I was so worn out I slept through some of it.

West Ridge of Pigeon Spire

We started a little later than normal to give some time for the morning light to soften the col. It looked intimidating from a distance, but wasn’t bad.

The weather wasn’t great this day either, with high winds and cold temps. We pushed through and made it to the start of the West Ridge (5.4), getting a break from the wind while we geared up.

We attempted to simul climb as much as we could, but made slower times than expected. We made it to the first sub peak and discussed if we should go further considering the weather was only getting worse.

Two climbers that quickly soloed to the summit of Pigeon Spire.

We decided to call it and head back down, knowing the chances of being benighted were pretty high given our current speed.

Descent

For the last day we packed up and decided to hit up Applebee Crack (5.9) on the way out as a little consolation prize. It looks burlier than it actually is and was a fun last climb.

Finishing up on Applebee Crack before heading back down from camp.

Since we decided to leave early due to the weather window our packs didn’t get much lighter.

We heard there were nearby hot springs in Radium Springs and decided we would try and get out in time to hit up the hot springs and crash there before driving back.

We stopped in Revelstoke on the way back and got some fun chill sport climbing in.