Outdoor Report: Hiking through history in the Bugaboos

If you're looking for hike that's off the beaten path this long weekend, this one could bea winner.

Tucked back in the Purcell Mountains in between Radium and Golden lies ageologically unique rockclimbing mecca,steeped in mountaineering history and it's absolutely gorgeous, said Paul Karchut.

It's about a three-and-a-halfhour drive from Calgary, travellingalong Highway 1, down through Radium and then headingnorth. The last 45 kilometres to the trailhead are part of an active logging road that is maintained, but nonetheless full of bumps and potholes.

Right from the parking lot, you'll see commanding views ofHoundstoothSpire. Encircling that black spire is a massive, crevasse-cluttered glacier that looks like something you'd expect to see in Greenland.

Climb through the forest for a few kilometres and you'll find anold glacial moraine that now has wildflowers blossoming all over it.

Conrad KainHut

The nine-kilometrereturn hike takes you to a big hut perched high on a cliff with a rich bit of history.

Back in 1916 Conrad Kain, the famed Austrian mountaineer, recognized how unique this area was.

He took a paddlewheeler up the Columbia River then bushwhacked his way over many, many days to summit the Bugaboo Spire in agreat example of early mountaineers blazing a trail into the unknown.

Fast forward a few decades to 1965, when another famous mountain guide, Hans Gmoser, opened the first ever heliski operation in the world in the Bugaboos and it continues to operate to this day.

All this historycontinues to draw alpiniststo the trail.

Cobalt Lake Loop

If you decide to keep hiking past the hut, you'll find a20-kilometrecircuit that gains a little less than 2,000 metres of elevation.

It will require you to traversethe fairly benign Cobalt glacier, but a glacier with some hidden crevasses none-the-less.

From there, you'll drop down to thestunning and crystal clear Cobalt Lake before you hit Cobalt Ridge again, loaded with wildflowers right now for your final descent back down to the logging road that you drove up on.

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With files from the Calgary Eyeopener