Ryan Stuart, explore's gear editor

Via ferrata - the heli hike day

• Posted on September 23, 2008 at 6:27 PM
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On the last full day at CMHs Bobbie Burns Lodge we went hiking. Doesn't sound that exciting until you feel the Gs as the helicopter banks into an alpine basin or plumets off the lip of a hanging valley. The hiking was all off trail and extremely scenic.

First we bagged a minor summit across the valley from Conrad Peak, one of the last first ascents Conrad Kain tagged before retiring from his legendary mountaineering career. The remote peak was a serious expedition back then and without a helicopter even today.

After lunch we flew to another glaciated basin where we hiked to the tip of a receding glacier and right into a deep blue ice cave. The whole time we were under a towering granite peak, the most northerly of the granite summits of the Bugaboo Range.

With thunderheads threatening we beat an early departure back to the Canyon Trail where we flew across the river on a couple of zip lines.

Back at the lodge it was another fine dinner. We partied late into the night - it was the last day of the season for the staff so the atmosphere was charged. The next morning low valley fog delayed our departure, but none of us complained as we watched the Purcells peak-a-boo in the morning light.