Into the Bugaboos
Heli-hiking offers a unique way to explore one of Canada's most spectacular mountain landscapes.
Words and images by Claudia Laroye
The dense fog is muffling the whir of the approaching helicopter.
Crouched on a narrow mountain ridge, heads bowed to avoid the downdraft, we can’t see the bird until it’s nearly on top of us, landing softly on a small, grassy patch a few feet away. It’s an impressive, if nerve-wracking, display of precision flying.
Emilie, our hiking guide, had radioed for a “bump”, aka a heli lift, to get us out of the summit’s impenetrable low cloud and onto lower terrain.
Our cracker-jack pilot Ben is now flying our group of eight hikers down to an alpine valley above Rory Creek in British Columbia’s Bugaboos mountain range.
At once, our propeller-powered Bell helicopter breaks through the fog into the riotous colour of a blooming wildflower meadow with limitless views of the glacier-carved granite spires of some of B.C.’s most iconic mountains.
“Lunchtime!” announces Emilie.
With a 360-degree view, no less.
The towering peaks of British Columbia’s Bugaboos may have been a dead-end for 19th-century gold miners seeking their fortune. But trekkers, climbers and mountaineers will strike it rich exploring the granite cliffs, alpine meadows and shimmering sapphire-blue lakes on an unforgettable heli-hiking tour in the splendour of our own Canadian backyard.
Getting into the glorious alpine of British Columbia and Alberta’s mountain regions can often mean hauling tents, packs and enough food to last days’ worth of hiking and adventure, which, let’s face it, isn’t for everyone.
Fortunately, the growth of heli-assisted hiking operations in western Canada means that hikers of nearly every age and ability can more easily access the backcountry grandeur of the Coastal, Selkirk, Purcell and Rocky Mountains. All while enjoying the impressive comforts of well-equipped fly-in mountain lodges like CMH Bugaboos, just southwest of Golden in B.C.’s Kootenay Rockies region.
CMH’s claim to fame for the past 60 years has been its world-famous heli-skiing operation. Founder and mountain guide Hans Gmoser practically invented the genre, and skiers come from around the world for the tantalizing taste of untouched champagne powder and nearly unlimited runs.
The summer hiking program started in 1978 thanks to the persistent lobbying of tour operator Arthur Tauck, who convinced Hans that people would want to hike in the same spaces that skiers loved so much. And they did.
“We were welcoming people who had never seen mountains except from a distance,” Hans noted in his writings before his untimely passing in 2006.
“We had them walking through alpine meadows covered with beautiful flowers, hiking along high ridges, crossing snowfields, all in the heart of exceedingly spectacular mountain scenery. This was an experience far beyond anything they had ever imagined."
That beauty is indeed beyond many of our imaginations, which makes experiencing it up close all the more enchanting and wondrous.
Soaking in summer sunshine after devouring my pack lunch of a hummus sandwich, crispy carrots and sweet cherries (mountain air fuels appetites like nothing else), our hiking troupe treks past cascading waterfalls, colourful flower meadows and up to the moraine and ancient ice of the Kickoff Glacier, where pilot Ben appears once more to ferry us down to CMH Bugaboos Lodge just in time for a late afternoon aperitif and dip in the hot tub before suppertime.
The day’s alpine experiences enliven the evening’s dinner conversations as we dine around communal tables overlooking the sunset glow upon the iconic Bugaboo Spires.
Over plates of grilled halibut and caprese salads, guests swap stories of the day’s hike to Cobalt Lake or along the rocky ridge line of Black Forest Peak. Laughter greets the fantastical tale of a dodgy encounter with a particularly territorial ptarmigan. Other guests relate meeting the challenge of the Lodge’s imposing Skyladder Via Ferrata, a seemingly death-defying “iron way” around some of the steepest rocky terrain in these parts.
The call of these mountains is heeded by expert alpine guides and guests of all ages from around the world. The allure of these heli-hiking trips lies in their accessibility to every trip style — guests don’t have to be experienced hikers or trek for miles to appreciate these otherwise inaccessible alpine scenes.
Hikers can choose their own level of difficulty, take time on the trails, pause to admire impressive glaciers or dip into a glacial lake — even enjoy a nap in a fragrant alpine meadow if the mood strikes. For travellers pressed for time but eager to connect with nature and each other, heli-hiking is an ideal way to see lots of high-altitude beauty during the brief, fleeting weeks of an intense alpine summer.
On the final day in this mountain paradise, my guide Jeff puts it simply. Up here, “the world’s our oyster, and we have a helicopter.” Turns out that the sky is the limit for adventurers enthusiastic to mine a golden vein of adventure in the beautiful, bucolic Bugaboos.
Claudia Laroye
Claudia Laroye is an award-winning freelance writer and author living in Vancouver, Canada. She writes about adventure and sustainable travel for a variety of online and print outlets around the world, including; AFAR, Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Saturday Evening Post, Explore and Northern Soul magazines. Her award-winning travel anthology, ‘A Gelato a Day’ was published in fall 2022.
Disclosure: Claudia was a guest of CMH and Destination British Columbia. All opinions are her own.