It was a little after 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 17, when Jordy Shepherd’s phone buzzed to life. He and other members of Columbia Valley’s Search and Rescue team were being sent into the towering granite spires of B.C.’s Purcell mountains to respond to “a report of dramatically elevated creek flows” in Bugaboo Provincial Park.

The rescuers boarded a helicopter a short while later and flew in. Shepherd, a mountain guide certified by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG), who has spent the past 25 years working in the Bugaboos, could tell something was wrong through the helicopter’s windshield.

“On our first reconnaissance flight of the area we noted very high creek levels above the Kain Hut, and dirty water,” he said. “The hiking trail access bridge was intact but surrounded by raging water on both sides.” Upstream from the hut, Shepherd noticed that the meltwater lake between Bugaboo Spire and Crescent Spire, which had historically been supported by glacial ice on its downhill side, now “cut a deep channel through the glacier ice” and rushed into the valley below.

Watch an aerial video of the flood damage to the Bugaboos

Guests staying at the Alpine Club of Canada’s (ACC) Conrad Kain Hut were among the first to notice the rising creek level on the steep moraine above them. The hut’s custodian immediately contacted SAR. According to the ACC’s Executive Director, Carine Salvy, the hut was fully booked, with more than 30 people staying there. Nearby campgrounds filled with climbers were similarly busy, bringing the total number of people in the backcountry to more than 60.

Shepherd, who has more than two decades of mountain rescue experience and hosts a podcast called Delivering Adventure that focuses on backcountry recreation and safety, surveyed the damage from the air. After taking stock of the submerged trail, he and his team determined it would be safest to evacuate the public by air.

“It took about 10 flights to evacuate 60-plus people plus their gear,” Shepherd explained. A group of ACMG guides already working in the Bugaboos, along with two ACC staff and a police officer, helped Shepherd and his 10-person SAR team with the process. They used a nearby Canadian Mountain Holidays lodge to refuel the helicopter during the seven-hour evacuation. “Everyone was in good spirits, but sad to have to leave the Bugaboos,” Shepherd said.

This isn’t the first time that shifting rock and ice has impacted access to the Bugaboos.

In December 2022 rockfall destroyed part of Snowpatch Spire. Among the climbs wiped off the granite was the Tom Egan Memorial Route, a fourteen-pitch 5.14 considered to be the hardest alpine climb in Canada. Lingering risk from the rockfall kept parts of the park closed until earlier this summer.

Melting glaciers are also a well known problem in the area. According to a 2009 summary of changes to glaciers in mountains of western North America, the Bugaboo Glacier has lost more than 400 meters of ice since 1972. Just north of Bugaboo Spire, the Vowell Glacier is retreating even faster. In 2017 a meltwater lake at the toe of the Vowell broke through the ice and rock holding it back. There wasn’t anyone in the remote drainage below, but BC Parks still warns backcountry users to “avoid extended travel or overnight camping” in that part of Bugaboo Provincial Park due to the risk of another flood.

BC Parks issued a formal order shutting down access to the core area of Bugaboo Provincial Park the afternoon of the evacuations. For climbers hoping to get into the Bugaboos this season, there isn’t any clear timelines for re-opening. “Until flooding subsides and Parks staff are able to assess residual hazards and damage done to facilities, the entire Core Area of Bugaboo Park including the Kain Hut Trail is closed until further notice,” said Nigel McInnis, communications manager with BC’s Ministry of Environment and Parks,.

Carine Salvy and the ACC don’t believe there is any direct damage to the Kain Hut. The biggest challenge, they agree, will be damage to the trail. “The trail leading to the hut is heavily impacted and cannot be used to access the hut or the campgrounds,” said Salvy. “We are working with BC Parks to determine whether an alternate route can be established. We hope to have more information later this week.”

Climbing will continue to update this article as more information becomes available.

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