Outdoor Report: Hiking through history in the Bugaboos
It's a bit of a bumpy drive, but the views more than make up for it
If you're looking for hike that's off the beaten path this long weekend, this one could be a winner.
Tucked back in the Purcell Mountains in between Radium and Golden lies a geologically unique rock climbing mecca, steeped in mountaineering history — and it's absolutely gorgeous, said Paul Karchut.
It's about a three-and-a-half hour drive from Calgary, travelling along Highway 1, down through Radium and then heading north. The last 45 kilometres to the trailhead are part of an active logging road that is maintained, but nonetheless full of bumps and potholes.
Right from the parking lot, you'll see commanding views of Houndstooth Spire. Encircling that black spire is a massive, crevasse-cluttered glacier that looks like something you'd expect to see in Greenland.
Climb through the forest for a few kilometres and you'll find an old glacial moraine that now has wildflowers blossoming all over it.
Conrad Kain Hut
The nine-kilometre return hike takes you to a big hut perched high on a cliff with a rich bit of history.
Back in 1916 Conrad Kain, the famed Austrian mountaineer, recognized how unique this area was.
He took a paddlewheeler up the Columbia River then bushwhacked his way over many, many days to summit the Bugaboo Spire in a great example of early mountaineers blazing a trail into the unknown.
Fast forward a few decades to 1965, when another famous mountain guide, Hans Gmoser, opened the first ever heliski operation in the world in the Bugaboos and it continues to operate to this day.
All this history continues to draw alpinists to the trail.
Cobalt Lake Loop
If you decide to keep hiking past the hut, you'll find a 20-kilometre circuit that gains a little less than 2,000 metres of elevation.
It will require you to traverse the fairly benign Cobalt glacier, but a glacier with some hidden crevasses none-the-less.
From there, you'll drop down to the stunning and crystal clear Cobalt Lake before you hit Cobalt Ridge — again, loaded with wildflowers right now — for your final descent back down to the logging road that you drove up on.
- Outdoor Report: High Rockies Trail unofficially open to mountain bikers and hikers
- Outdoor Report: Mount Cory is a scrambler's hidden gem
With files from the Calgary Eyeopener