THE BECKEY/CHOUINARD

IV 5.10 600 m, South Howser Tower

The Beckey/chouinard (The BC) is the guidebook cover. It tackles one of the most striking buttresses in the Bugaboos and should be on the shortlist for any confident 5.10 crack climber. It is found on the opposite side of the park, in the East Creek Basin, providing a significantly more remote experience than the classic lines above Applebee Campground. The BC is often described as 15 guidebook pitches, however there are hundreds of metres of technical scrambling book-ending this fantastic route. Some parties opt to break the climb into two days with a bivy on the Big Sandy ledge above pitch 10, setting themselves up for a breakfast of 5.10 splitters the following morning on the Great White Headwall. There are several appealing cracks to choose from on the Headwall including the aptly named Lost in the Towers 5.11 variation. However, walking to the left end of the ledge and climbing up to a wide crack in a right-facing corner will keep you on route. Near the top of the Headwall is the crux: a fingery traverse across an improbable looking slab. Either climb this sequence at a stiff 5.10 or clip two pitons and tension traverse left into a gully. Make one rappel off of a nest of slings at the top of the gulley and scramble 200 metres of mid-fourth- and mid-fifth-class ridgeline to the summit. The descent leads you down the opposite side of the South Howser and was updated with well-bolted rap stations in 2009. Eleven rappels with a single rope will take you back to the horizontal realm.