Pigeon Spire, Southeast Face. On a quick trip into the Bugaboos near the end of a cycle of good weather, Steve Marts and I decided to attempt one of the really obvious and classic unclimbed routes in the range, the buttress-like face between the eastern slabs of Pigeon Spire and the south face. It is the left corner as seen from Bugaboo Forks and on the trail to the moraine. Early on July 2 we climbed the glacier slopes to the left edge of the eastern slabs, where we worked our way up a variety of snow gullies and rock faces to the great slanting ledge system that sweeps from the far south to the east face. Possibilities were limited to several crack and dihedral systems. In fact, the only one that held any real promise was the corner itself, where a thin line of cracks offered a piton line to high on the spire. The first pitch began with an overhang and was largely artificial up an open-book that ended in a hanging belay. The next worked out on an overhang and then up a flaky crack to the first ledge in 300 feet. Here we worked right to an easy aid-crack, then up more difficult flakes to a two-foot ledge that was to serve as our bivouac for the night. Before dark we climbed a long solitary crack on an otherwise flawless wall to leave a rope in place. In the morning, after prusiking this, we tackled three successive shorter pitches, all with some kind of difficulty consisting either of direct aid, where we used giant bong-bongs, or hard free climbing. Three pitches of more reasonable climbing followed before we ascended a short final wall to the summit, which we reached by mid-morning. In all, the climb required 72 pitons. Because of the unusual amount of snow in the range, we were lucky we could do this climb, since virtually all other routes were snowy or wet.

Fred Beckey