Heli-hiking in the Bugaboos

By John McKinney

The helicopter that dropped we eight hikers and our guide into the wilderness of Bugaboo Provincial Park speeds out of earshot in 30 seconds and vanishes from sight in a minute. In complete silence, my fellow adventurers and I savor a mesmerizing panorama of a many-spired granite cathedral surrounded by glaciers, ice fields and vast fir forests.

Hiking along Grizzly Ridge, the vistas get even better and we behold the Bugaboos in all their glory:  rocky escarpments, lush green meadows, creeks cascading in braids off the shoulders of mountains down to cobalt blue alpine lakes rimmed by fire weed.

“Magnificent,” pronounces Valerie Housman, from Tucson. “We’re hiking on top the world. To tell you the truth I already forgot about the helicopter.  Oh, and look at my husband.”

Leaving us to admire the grand vistas, Larry Housman aims a camera the size of howitzer at a clump of lovely wildflowers, unlikely survivors in this rocky world above treeline.

We inhale great draughts of alpine air and count our blessings. By my watch, flying time to this rocky mountain high was only three minutes and 40 seconds. A hearty hiker would need two days to cover that distance on the ground. I’m as happy as any hiker atop Grizzly Ridge, but a wee bit uncomfortable too, because…because…

I was wrong.

Let me explain.

According to some marriage counselors, the three word sentiment one’s spouse most likes to hear is not the predictable “I love you,” but the heartfelt admission “I was wrong.” A close second in spousal satisfaction comes when we hear our mate admit, “You were right.”

And so it was, after the first glorious day of helicopter-hiking, I was on the Bugaboo Lodge radio-telephone calling home to tell Cheri I was wrong about heli-hiking, that I liked it, liked everything about it. And telling my wife “you were right,” right about how much I liked getting dropped into the Big Nowhere, hiking all day, and getting a lift back to a cozy lodge.

Back in her quest-for-the-best-powder downhill skiing days, Cheri had tried heli-skiing, and for years and years had insisted Mr. Hiker would love heli-hiking. For years and years I resisted, figuring it was either A) Some cheap thrills extension of those “Flight-Seeing” excursions that plague the peace and quiet of western national parks or B) An extreme sport suitable only for the hiking world’s daredevil fringe.

What convinced me was the terrain. The Bugaboos are not the Canadian Rockies, but their own special world, way off the familiar Jasper-Banff circuit. About the only way for the time-short traveler to penetrate these roadless, trail-less mountains is by helicopter.

Who convinced me was my longtime friend Bob Howells, best man at our wedding, a wilderness jock, and the only one of my middle-aged compadres in shape enough to enjoy what I was sure was going to be a test of real men vs. real big mountains. Yes, this would be a grand buddy trip, I fantasized…sprinting Marine-like toward a helicopter, dropping by rope from the craft into bear-filled woods, recalling past adventures over tankards of ale…

Oh, did I mention Bob has always said the way to get along with the lady in your life is to listen to her?

It’s immediately apparent I miscalculated about who goes heli-hiking when I meet our fellow adventurers on this Canadian Mountain Holidays trip. They range in age from 30s to 70s, from novice to experienced in hiking ability, and there are at least as many, if not more, women than men.  

The copter component of the hiking experience was way different than I imagined, too.

Here’s the drill. The guide radios the copter pilot and gives a quickie description of our location, wind conditions and the terrain. As the helicopter approaches, guide and guests get into a heli-huddle, that is to say, we form a circle around  piled-up day packs and hiking poles, get down on our knees, duck our heads and in less than a minute the copter lands right next to us. OK, maybe not right next to us, but less than free-throw distance away. (This close proximity to the craft keeps hikers out of the prop-wash and away from the gale-force winds generated by the propeller, which can whip cinders into eyes and even blow the skinnier hikers among us off a ridgetop. Keeping us close to the copter also helps extend CMA’s 30-year-old 100 percent perfect safety record and guarantees that every hiking holidaymaker returns with his/her head.)

The guide waves us into our seats and stows our gear. We fasten our seatbelts and almost instantly the Bell 212 is high in the air. The twin-engine jet copter leaves terra firma rapidly behind and zooms over a vast mountain kingdom devoid of roads, trails or humanity. After three to eight minutes of flying, the copter drops like a rock from the sky, hurtling toward a knife edge ridge. You brace yourself, anticipating the biggest bump of your life and…the helicopter lands with all the thud of a butterfly alighting on a twig.

Damn, those pilots are good.

The copter zooms away, and you and your guide start hiking.  (At this latitude, summer days are very long--meaning heli-hiking days can be long, too, if you’re in the mood for it.) The day’s sojourn might include crossing an alpine meadow while identifying a dozen different wildflowers, eating lunch by a bubbling stream, hiking through a forest and popping out on a promontory for a fabulous view. At day’s end, the helicopter picks you up and returns you to the lodge for a hot bath, dinner, and drinks around the fire with your new friends.

Located about a mile-high in elevation, Bugaboo Lodge boasts 22 rooms, all with private bath. Lodge capacity reflects helicopter capacity. A full helicopter equals 11 guests plus a guide, so CMA lodges are built to accommodate guests in multiples of eleven—44 in the case of the Bugaboos.

While I spent almost no waking time in my room, it was plenty warm and comfortable and featured great views of peaks and glaciers. After a long day of heli-hiking, by the time I snuggled under the duvet, I was in instant dreamland.

Days begin with hearty breakfasts of French toast with fresh berries, homemade muesli and granola, and fresh-from-the-oven bread. Thus fortified, hikers select sandwiches, power bars and other lunch items from a buffet table, arrange them into a CMA-issued cloth lunch bag and pack them in their day packs.
Dinners are family style, served by guides and staff, who act as hosts and hostesses. Entrees included rack of venison, salmon, and my favorite, a vegetable strudel.

Guests are divided into groups by hiking experience and the amount of energy and effort they’d like to expend on their holiday. I was placed in the A-group, categorized as “a person who is very active and enjoys strenuous, fast-paced hiking.” In practice, our group did cover a good bit of ground, but we didn’t try to break any speed records. And the other groups who took it easier, hikers who were merely meandering or perhaps more interested in learning about the local wonders of nature than reaching the top of a peak, had an equally terrific time.

Weather in the Bugaboos is constantly changing and the CMA crew is always getting the latest radio and internet updates. In just three days, I experienced rain, hail, wind, calm and bright sunshine.  And the weather can change several times in the course of a day, too. We wore wind pants and parkas, shorts and short-sleeves and everything in between, a kind of hiking textbook demonstration of the principle of layering.

Bugaboo Lodge has a big gear room, where guests can get outfitted from head to toe: parkas, wind pants, and such accessories as water bottles and hiking poles. About half the guests selected a pair of well broken-in boots from the lodge’s ample supply. The parka I borrowed was heavier and better than the one I brought along, and I was glad to use it. I declined the use of the heavy mountaineering boots, though, and was a completely happy hiker in my own mid-weight, semi-waterproof brand.

Bugaboo hikes range from 6,000 to 9,000 feet in elevation, which means thin air, but not so high to leave your breathing challenged. Compared to other ranges such as the Rockies or High Sierra, the Bugaboos are lower in elevation, but because they’re at high latitude, the range features the kind of glacier sculpted scenery found in loftier areas. I liked that the hiking was mostly off-trail, which definitely contributed to a deeper appreciation of the mountains and to a greater sense of adventure.

One morning we hiked along Chalice Creek, entered a subalpine forest of larch and fir and made our way to Charlie Meadows, where a riot of wildflowers greeted us. After reveling in the Valerian, indigo paintbrush, aster, ragwort, arnica and pearly-everlasting, our group broke into an impromptu and very off-key excerpt from “The Sound of Music”. Our guide Kim warned us that our bad singing would anger the Blueberry Bear (piles of his fresh scat indicated his fondness for the fruit) but we continued until the last lyric remembered.

Another day the helicopter dropped us on Groovy Peak and we slid down the scree slopes of the Groovy Scrabble to the lovely Bavin Lakes. The next great hike led to Cobalt Lake, every bit as blue as its name, then across the Vowell Glacier to Tamarisk Glen, where the lodge staff rewarded us with a barbecue lunch.
Heli-hiking owes its origins to heli-skiing but there are distinct differences between the sports and between their practitioners. “Heli-skiers are basically powder slope junkies and want a unique ski experience,” explains Dave Cochrane, Bugaboo Lodge manager.  “For skiers, it’s more of a sporting experience than a travel experience. Heli-hikers, in contrast, are far more interested in exploring the mountains and learning about the unique nature of the high country.”

When I remark that Cochrane appears to be the healthiest looking hotel manager I’ve ever met, he smiles good-naturedly. “I do my managing between guiding. I’m first and foremost a mountain guide and do my lodge managing between guiding hikers. Our business is guiding people, so if the manager is not in the field, it doesn’t work.”

While hiking the Bugaboos, I puzzled over the issue of the environmental impacts of helicopters used anywhere in the wild, and pressed all the guides on the issue.  My thoughts: Copters are undoubtedly an intrusion in the wilderness, but thankfully a very brief one. Short of beaming up the mountain like a Star Trek character, I don’t know how a hiker could travel from ridge to ridge any faster.  As long as they’re used as trailhead machines to hop from one area to another in the most concisely routed manner possible and not used as touring machines, as long as required environmental restrictions (such as no over-flying mountain goat habitat) are observed, the craft get a qualified OK from me.

On the last day Bob decides to join a mountaineering group for the long climb of Pigeon Spire, a dramatic rock promontory so near and yet so far from the lodge. He and his guide set off with crampons and ice axes—and lots of courage and stamina—on what promises to be a spectacular and long (10 hour) day.

My hiking group begins our final hike with a saunter through an alpine garden bedecked in western anemone, buttercup, columbine and yellow glacier lily. After a short helicopter lift, we hike to a ridgetop, where no heli-hikers had been in several seasons by the name of… No, I’m not going to tell you, because this is a land of a hundred knife-edge ridges and a thousand fabulous vistas awaiting your discovery.

Near the end of the day our guide radios Bugaboo Lodge with a request: “Let’s reschedule Alice’s 5 o’clock massage for later in the evening. And hold the copter. We’re having too much fun out here to come in right now.”

If you want to avoid saying “I was wrong” and “you were right” to a friend or loved one who suggests you go heli-hiking, heed John’s Three Lessons Learned While Heli-hiking in the Bugaboos:
1) Six days of heli-hiking will undoubtedly be more than twice the fun as three. 2) Heli-hiking is a terrific experience for hikers of almost all ages and abilities. 3) When your dearly beloved tells you to take a hike, don’t take offense—take a trip!

Heli-Hiking Info

For more information, call Canadian Mountain Holidays, 1-800-661-0252,

Visit www.canadianmountainholidays.com/hike/

In addition to Bugaboo Lodge, CMH also has four more lodges with a similar program scattered in the adjacent Cariboo and Selkirk ranges.

A CMH heli-hiking experience in the Bugaboos costs (depending on fluctuations with the Canadian dollar) approximately $2200 and includes pre-night accommodation and dinner in Banff and 3 nights at Bugaboo Lodge.

Getting There: Frequent AirCanada flights from Los Angeles to Edmonton. From Edmonton, it’s a two-hour ride via the Banff Airporter bus to Banff, where you overnight. A CMH-chartered bus picks you up at the hotel and transports you to the helipad near Spillimacheen, BC, for the copter ride up to Bugaboo Lodge.