THE BUGS & THE BOW
A couple photographs from 5 days in Bugaboo Provincial Park, British Columbia, and 5 days climbing in Bow Valley, July 2022. Contrary to popular belief, the Bugs (as most climbers refer to them) is not an alpine playground if you show up before the alpine season. If you do what we did and arrive early what you'll find is snow, snow, avalanches, waist-deep snow, shallow snow, more deep snow, picas, probably no bears, maybe cougars, unruly mountain weather, hail storms, high winds, mellow winds, but just wind, broken bridges, and bitterly cold nights. What you'll find is mountaineering weather and let me assure you, I am not a mountaineer. I'm from Toronto, and have no training in literally anything except running for public transit busses that see me waiting and leave me anyway. The Bugaboo weather might be unexpected, especially if you arrive from a city where the daytime highs are 30 degrees Celsius in early July. The weather in the Bugaboos is simply random. I'm pretty sure a week later the Bugs became beautiful, and a DJ showed up to spin a turntable on the same glassy ice rink of a rock we parked our tents on. I'm not making a joke. They threw a party there a week after we left. Nonetheless, here are photos of the silence and serenity we encountered. It was all ours for a couple days which, as I noted, is rare in the Bugaboos during the summer. So the conditions we arrived in, as unbearable as they may have seemed at the time, were truly special. And this my friends is what I call 'type-five fun' :)
THE BOW VALLEY
We cragged for the next five days after leaving the Bugs in Lake Louise, Banff and Canmore. I only took photos of us on a "rest day" at Tunnel Mountain. As slab isn't my forte, this cheese-grater wall gave me the opportunity to take a break and photograph my friends. They deserve some superhero pictures. They are super friends. I just want to note that the next time we show up in Lake Louise we will work 'The Path'. I'm not going back to Banff until I'm strong enough to zip up a 14a. Wicked Gravity was one of the most beautiful sport lines I've climbed outside of Lions Head and Kentucky. And to Sabina's project called 'Aeroflot' ...you will not be neglected. Unfortunately we will come back for you too lol.
THANK YOU
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All photos taken by Charlotte Rauchberger
Camera: Sony RX100 MIII
