Bugaboo NE Ridge from saddle

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Bugaboo NE Ridge from saddle

Bugaboo NE Ridge from saddle

Paul Jay approaching the NE Ridge from the saddle. The route begins at the white ledge above the shadow line. Our first view of this was from the top of Crescent Spire, behind the photographer here. We watched a climber ascend the crack above the left side of the snowpatch unroped and wondered if we'd be able to do that. Turned out it wasn't that steep; we walked beside it. There's some class 3 getting to the ledge, but it's reasonable, even in boots with a pack.
Eric Sandbo
on Nov 14, 2004 12:21 am
Lat/Lon: 50.74550°N / 116.7891°W
Image Type(s): Alpine Climbing
Image ID: 78150

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Viewing: 1-7 of 7
Scott

Scott - Nov 14, 2004 12:49 am - Hasn't voted

Nice pic

Beautiful.

wildstar

wildstar - Nov 20, 2004 9:23 pm - Voted 10/10

Wow

Inspirational. Thanks for posting.

VaughnH

VaughnH - Dec 31, 2007 9:38 pm - Voted 10/10

How long did it take

to reach the summit from there?

Eric Sandbo

Eric Sandbo - Jan 8, 2008 2:02 am - Hasn't voted

Re: How long did it take

Let's see... we left the hut an hour before dawn; it might be about 6:30 here. We tunneled up to the top about 2:00 that afternoon - by then the sky was pretty threatening, but the weather held.
There were 4 of us, climbing as two pairs, at middling speed. We're accustomed to passing slower climbers and being passed by faster ones, more often the latter.
Derek Franzen may well remember more details; I'll ask him.
It easily fits into my short list of all-time favorite routes. When planning a trip to the Bugs, we'd argue over who gets which leads on this one. When we got home from there, we'd realize we had most of a summer left with no climbs planned. Bugaboo and its neighbors were such a climax for guys like us, we'd forget that we still had a couple of months of summer left to play in the Cascades.

Derek Franzen

Derek Franzen - Jan 8, 2008 10:18 am - Voted 10/10

Re: How long did it take

I think Eric's memory is quite accurate. We weren't on a speed climb that day, we were enjoying the route and the views. Only after noon did the weather start to deteriorate and then we felt a sense of urgency to get off the mountain. If I remember we made it down to the Glacier and Leslie by 6 PM.

Derek

snotsteep

snotsteep - Sep 26, 2012 11:22 am - Voted 10/10

Really Spectacular!

How did you weigh going here, where the weather is always crappy, with going somewhere else that has better weather?

Eric Sandbo

Eric Sandbo - Oct 3, 2012 1:13 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Really Spectacular!

It's just too stinkin' beautiful to pass up, and I'd been to a lot of the other easily-reached places in this part of the world.
Bugaboo weather is almost identical to that in Seattle, with two minor differences: It's a day later, and it's 10,000 feet higher. Seattle's summer looks like it will never come, until July 4th. I made 5 trips to the Bugs over 9 years, and I nearly always went in late June, in hopes of finding more snow below Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col. (I'd take one or two week-long climbing trips/year, and the fact that I made that trip to the Bugs every other year for a decade speaks to how much I love that place.) I think now I should have waited a week or two for more reliable weather. You can still get some T-storms, but that's true in any interior range, I think.

Viewing: 1-7 of 7