Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
later grew as a regional center for surrounding farmland. Brisco General Store is a throw-
back to those earlier times, selling just about everything. Nearby
Spillimacheen,
meaning
“white-water” to the area's earliest inhabitants, sits at the confluence of the Spillimacheen
River and Bugaboo Creek.
Bugaboo Glacier Provincial Park
Inaccessible to all but the most experienced hikers and climbers, this vast tract of wilderness
in the Purcell Mountains northwest of Radium Hot Springs is reached along a 45-kilometer
(28-mile) gravel road west from Brisco. At road's end, a trail climbs steeply to a glaciated
area that rivals the Canadian Rockies in beauty. Aside from the ice fields covering half
the park, the most dominant features here are spectacular granite spires rising to elevations
above 3,000 meters (9,840 feet). While the Purcell Mountains are an ancient range 1.5 bil-
lion years old, the spires formed as intrusions thrust skyward only about 70 million years
ago. Since then, erosion has shaped them into today's granite needles towering over the sur-
rounding ice fields.
The
Conrad Kain Hut,
a base for hikers and climbers wanting to explore the park, is a
five-kilometer (3.1-mile) hike from the end of the road, up a valley carved by the retreating
Bugaboo Glacier. The trail gains around 700 meters (2,300 feet) in elevation; allow at least
two hours. Camping is also possible near the hut. No set trails lead from the hut to the spires
or ice fields, and you'll need climbing and glacier-travel experience to continue deeper into
the park.
The Bugaboos were the birthplace of heli-skiing. It was here in the mid-1960s that
Hans Gmoser used a helicopter to transport skiers into normally inaccessible areas.
Ca-
nadian Mountain Holidays
(403/762-7100 or 800/661-0252,
www.canadianmountainholidays.com
)
, the company Gmoser founded, now has a lodge
deep in the Bugaboos.
Named for one of the Canadian Rockies' most spectacular peaks, this 39,050-hectare
(96,500-acre), roughly triangular park lies northeast of Radium Hot Springs, sandwiched
between Kootenay National Park to the west and Banff National Park to the east. It's inac-
cessible by road; access is on foot or by helicopter. A haven for experienced hikers, the park
offers alpine meadows, lakes, glaciers, and many peaks higher than 3,050 meters (10,000
feet) to explore. The park's highest peak, 3,618-meter (11,870-foot) Mount Assiniboine
(seventh-highest in the Canadian Rockies), is known as the Matterhorn of the Rockies for
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