By Rory Diacono
Originally Published – Feb 14, 2024
Backside of the Hut
Located in British Columbia’s Purcell Mountain Range you’ll come across one of the world’s most magical natural wonders that comes in mountain form, The Bugaboo Mountains!
The Hut Facilities:
- Open: Summer Only
- Cost: $25 CAD for Hut, $10 for Applebee Dome Campground
- Sleeping Capacity: 35
- Beds are vinyl covered foam mattresses (crash mat style)
- Cooking: on-site gas stove
- Water: Provided
- Taps provide untreated glacier water collected upstream from the hut
- Hut Stewards provide large vats containing boiled water for drinking
- Bathrooms: Compostable Long-drops (Outhouse)
- For bathing, the Stewards ask that you do it downstream from the hut to not contaminate the huts water
All areas are communal where guests are expected to clean, chop wood and shovel snow for the hut during their stay. Guests are also responsible to sanitize beds before and after use.
Distances
- Trail length: 5 kilometres
- Elevation gain: 700m
- Difficulty: Hard
Large “hostel like” kitchen with large Vats full of drinking water
Brief History
A “Bugaboo” is a term used by gold prospectors who first surveyed the area in the late 1800’s meaning a “dead end.” The area’s value, however, came in a different form and became famous due to its dramatic spires that tower over the valley. The Spires have been carved out by millions of years of various weathering processes from glaciers, strong winds and the Columbia Wet Belt, a local weather anomaly which brings heavy amounts of snow to the area. The combination of these events have eroded away the softer rock and revealed the alpine granite and some of the greatest mountain climbing features in the world.
Kain 1933 — Gripped.com, 2019
Climbing began in the early 1900’s with famous names such as Harmon, Longstaff, A.O. Wheeler and of course Conrad Kain visiting in 1910. Kain accomplished a number of “first ascents” in the area, most notably the Bugaboo Spire describing it as “one of the most challenging climbs of his life.” In his honor the Alpine Club of Canada constructed the Conrad Kain hut in 1972 and has continued to be used by hikers and climbers till today.
Google Maps, 2024
Getting there
I started my journey to the hut on the 20th of July 2023 leaving the town of Golden. My group and I were travelling 114 km south on Hwy 95 (about a 1h 46 min Journey) but If you’re travelling north from Invermere on the 95, you’ll be driving a slightly shorter, 90km (1h 34min). Both these routes meet in the town of Brisco where you will turn onto Briscoe Rd and travel 5km crossing the railroad and Columbia River along the way. Turn left at Briscoe Falls trailhead and ask yourself why you bothered washing your car yesterday, cuz it’s all dirt from here! The final leg to get to the Conrad Kain Trailhead is an hours drive up the scenic valley and will give you the chance to see Hound’s Tooth and the glacier that skirts it. Along the way there’s a number of pull offs to go down to the Bugaboo Creek and you’ll also drive past CMH Bugaboos Lodge who operate heliskiing tours in the Bugs and surrounding mountains.
Grace & Josh
Gear I Brought Along
As a team of six spending one night our bags were simple and only contained the necessary items. For dinner we planned to make Naan Bread pizzas so we evenly divided the ingredients into each member’s bags: Naan bread, Tomato Sauce, Cheese, Mushrooms and Cabanossi.
Clothes
- Spare Underwear (for your best Tiger Woods impression)
- Hiking shirt (wool and/or polyester for best breathability)
- Hiking pants (comfortable, practical, breathable, quick dry)
- Hiking boots/Trail runners (grippy and comfortable)
- Fleece (wool and/or Polyester are light, warm and pack small)
- Raincoat (mountain weather is unpredictable, keeps the warmth in and the rain/wind out)
- Wide brim hat, sunscreen and sunnies (slip, slop, slap)
- Beanie (the higher you go the colder it gets)
Gear
- Backpack (one with good hip straps to keep the weight off your back and side straps to attach other gear to)
- Sleeping bag (hard to stuff)
- Aeropress* and keep-cup (makeshift cougar bell)
- Head torch (in case the sun disappears and/or you get lost)
- Watch (it tells the time)
- Camera (pics or it didn’t happen)
Food/Drink
- Porridge (breakfast slop)
- Coffee (bean soup)
- 3 bullet proof sandwiches* (fillings that won’t give you botulism if left unrefrigerated for days)
- Fruit and Muesli Bars (the more squished the better)
- Oreos (for hostage situations)
- Naan bread (makes great frisbees)
*= items I will be buried with
Good quality dirt trail
Arrival
The trail head starts at a small car park to the right. You’ll notice upon arrival that a lot of cars have chicken wire surrounding them, secured to rocks and logs. This is because the porcupines* in the area have a hankering for brake lines and other vital car parts. The Park does supply the chicken wire to use, however when we arrived we were only able to get scraps and had to make our own makeshift protection. If you’ve got spare chicken wire lying around, be sure to pack it and donate it to the less fortunate.
The path through meadows
The Hike
- Trail length: 5 kilometres
- Elevation gain: 700m
- Difficulty: Hard
The trail is an average 5 km to the hut and climbs a vertical of around 700m. The first 1.5km remains relatively flat as you cross a number of small creeks and waterways that become the Bugaboo creek, the other two thirds is when the climb begins and the elevation gain is condensed into 3.5km of steep trail scattered with beautiful landmarks. On our ascent we winded through wildflower meadows, skipped across crystal mountain streams, squeezing through boulders and maneuvering around cliff faces. In the background the goal of the glacier was forever getting closer. I felt like I was Nathan Drake from Uncharted. As we reached the final push we could see Conrad Kain Hut perched on the hill and took note of the hut’s compostable toilets as we circled around to the front door.
The Hut
We made it! Time to take in the view, admire the antique climbing gear (oh wait– that’s actually some old fellas actual gear), drop our packs and sit back and eat some lunch. You’ll find yourself practically tripping over perfect lunch spots and while you’re munching away you can watch and greet many other hikers and climbers passing by to either enter the hut or continue their way to Applebee Dome Campground.
Hut Entry
Exploring the area
After we rested for lunch it was time to do some exploring in this magical place. Our next stop was the Applebee Dome Campground a further 2.6km up the hill, for $10 a night you can pitch your tent on top of this rocky plateau and get the full experience of the Bugaboos. There you’ll meet other fellow travellers and get access to the fire pit, hanging racks and storage lockers. You’ll also experience one of the greatest “poo with view” spots if you visit the outhouse situated on the edge of the cliff.
Poo with a View
We continued up to the small lake to lay back in the sunshine and scout out what peaks are around us and which one we’ll climb tomorrow. You can’t swim in this lake as this is where the hut draws its water from. There’s a big sign to tell you to stay out and no, I didn’t miss it or swim it and this is my blog where I am perfect and can do nothing wrong!
Lake above Applebee Dome
The Evening
People sleep and rise early in the Bugs as we observed, it was only 5pm and people were already settling down for the night. We started to prepare dinner an hour later and finally combined each of the dinner pieces to create The Pita-Pizza (…except with Naan).
A simple meal but a crowd favorite, all you’ll need is:
- Pita bread or (naan bread in our case)
- Tomato paste
- Your favourite pizza toppings!… Ours are: Shredded cheese, Cabanossi and Mushrooms
- A fry pan with a cover to cook
To cook:
- Preheat your pan on medium heat
- Spread the tomato paste on 1 side of the bread
- Add your desired topping with the cheese being last
- Place the bread on the fry pan to toast and crispen the bottom and place the cover on top to heat the toppings and melt the cheese
Serve on plates that are clean enough on wooden benches with sticker bombed mugs full of secret bag wine, Bon Appetit!
Cards and Sunsets
In the Canadian midsummer, the sun sets so late in the day that you’ll have light till very late in the evening. This meant that after dinner and cleaning up we could sit outside on the stone chairs and play cards till it was too dark to play. We returned inside and settled down ourselves, got into our sleeping bags, smacked down our packs to make the best pillows possible and fell asleep with the mountain breeze drifting from one end of the loft to the other.
Second sleeping floor
Eastpost Spire
Morning Brown
Rising at 7am, with the desire for coffee and breakfast slop, I sat outside to enjoy the morning and to wait for everyone else to get up.
It’s climbing day and because we’re all inexperienced and terrified of Trad (Traditional style rock climbing) we decided to scramble up Eastpost Spire instead.
Aleix climbing the Eastpost ridge
Eastpost is the peak north east to the Applebee campground and the climb starts in the very gravely saddle near yesterday’s lake. The loose gravel is difficult to walk through and can easily cause larger rocks to start tumbling down towards your mates, so be careful! We turned right to scale the ridge and then circled around clockwise to the short vertical rock climb with many holds. It’s a spectacular sight to see the other side of the mountains as you’re presented with a completely untouched, wild environment that you haven’t experienced before this trip. You scan over an extremely barren bowl with new cyan lakes and mountains just as, if not bigger, than the one you’re already on. The only thing comprehensible is your minute scale compared to the Purcell’s.
Backside of the Bugs
Small but not alone, once you reach the top and scan the other peaks around you, you’ll notice other red, green and blue speckles dangling, surveying and comprehending the world we’re currently in. Its a serious escape from civilization and a humbling one too, make sure you take the photos and take in the experience because eventually we’ll all have to return to civilization, the city and the office. Put the photos somewhere special and somewhere to remind you to get back out there!
Eastpost Summit
On the sobering hike back down to the car, you walk past landmarks that you feel you saw forever ago, pass hikers that reflected your excitement when you first started the climb and walk deeper into the forest that looked like a mat of grass this morning. We arrived back at the car, peeled off the chicken wire and tried to remember how we packed the car in the first place and celebrated that the car still started and the porcupines hadn’t got to the break lines. The next few hours during the drive we reflected on our highlights and lowlights or just fell asleep. Tomorrow work starts again and the hunt for the next adventure.
Photos were taken by Rory Diacono on a Google Pixel 3xl and a Kodak Ezy Share Camera