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July 1, 2025
Deep in the western Bugaboos lies the Pigeon Feathers, a cluster of rock towers south of the more well known Pigeon Spire. One of these towers, the lowly Prince Albert Tower, contains Solitary Confinement, a continuous splitter crack stretching over 200m up the west face of Prince Albert Tower.
Routes climbed:
| Name | Grade (YDS) | # Pitches | Quality (1-5) | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solitary Confinement | 5.11 | 6 | 5 | trad |
Peaks/Towers climbed
| Peak | Elevation | Topographic Prominence | Summit Coordinates (lat/lon) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prince Albert Tower | 2,710m (8,891 ft) | 30m (100ft) | 50.72149, -116.79443 |
Gear
- Doubles .1 to 5 cams
- Triples .3, 4 cams
- Singles .2/.3 and .1/.2 offset cams
- Rack of small to medium nuts
- 70m rope, although I would advise a tag-line or second rope to rap pitch 1 with
- 12 alpine draws
- extra webbing (to replace rap tat if needed)
Stats
Round trip from Applebee Camp
10 km (6.2 mi)
1,080 m (3,500 ft) gain/loss
Round trip from trailhead
20 km (12.4 mi)
2,060 m (6,760 ft) gain/loss
Carson and I set off from Applebee Camp at 6:30am just as the sun was cresting over the side of Easpost Tower above camp. We plodded our way through the snow for a short moment before ascending the 45 degree couloir to Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col. We ran into several others along the way who were mostly heading up to climb the west ridge of Pigeon Spire but also a few who were planning to climb Surfs Up on Snowpatch Spire.
route to Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col from Applebee Camp
views from Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col
From Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col, we easily plodded southwest across the Vowell Glacier for about 1.5km, following the tracks of other climbers headed to Pigeon. As we neared the start of Pigeon's west ridge, we left the tracks and continued for a short ways southwest to the Howser-Pigeon Col. From here we would lose roughly 370m of elevation descending south from the col and continuing south over to the base of Prince Albert Tower. Immediately south of the Howser-Pigeon Col, our approach route went under an overhanging serac dangling off the south side of South Howser Tower. We nervously scampered through this short section.
looking down from Howser-Pigeon Col
serac below South Howser Tower
South Howser Tower behind
About 2.5 hours after leaving camp, we arrived at the start of Solitary Confinement. The main crack of the route was truly a sight to behold, seemingly splitting the entire west face of the tower in two. We kicked steps up to a snow moat to start the route.
Pitch 1 (5.11)
From the snow moat, the crack was merely a seam and our fingers couldn't fit. A few edges on the sides of the seam made it possible. Carson was able to get a .1/.2 offset cam about 2m off the deck, then a small nut 5m up (your amount of climbing here may vary based on the level of the snow moat relative to the face). About 6m up, the crack opened up to accept fingers, and Carson led up over a small overlap (crux) and punched his way up it on thin flaring finger pods. I was only able to get my fingertips in these pods while my feet skated the dimples on the high-angle slab below, but was just able to hang on. After the overlap, the climbing eased considerably and the crack opened up to good hands.
Pitch 2 (5.10-)
Straightforward hand crack with a few wider sections, which were also straightforward. Short pitch.
Pitch 3 (5.11-)
I got out our three 4s and two 5s and left all the other gear behind. Most of this pitch was endurance fists, with a short wider section where I used only one 5.
looking down pitch 3
Pitch 4 (5.10+)
Big burly offwidth. This was way more physical than all the other pitches. I used all the wider gear we had (two 3s, three 4s, two 5s) and knee locked, calf locked, butterflied, and arm barred to glory. There was a smaller crack inside the larger one near the middle of the pitch that looked to take a .5 or .75, but I had left those with Carson at the belay. The pitch ended with hand sized jams through a small roof.
looking up pitch 4
Carson on pitch 4
Pitch 5 (5.10+)
Even though it was the same grade, this was much easier than the previous pitch. I continued jamming upwards through some small roofs, still placing a couple of the 4s and one of the 5s, but it was mostly hand sized. This pitch ended on a very nice spacious ledge. There was a water drip coming out of a snowfield, and I happily plopped my water bottle under it and filled up.
Pitch 6 (5.9+)
An easy but junky pitch. I headed left from our spacious ledge, jamming a hand crack up a small pillar before stepping left. Two junky chimneys rose above me. I started up the right one, then into the left one as the boulders inside the right one were too sketchy. Once the chimney ended, a short overhung section of punchy hand crack led me to the summit talus field, where the only anchor I could find was a couple nuts held together by sketchy rodent-chewed webbing. I backed this up with a couple cams and webbing of our own in order to belay Carson up. I would not recommend this pitch unless you want to go for the summit.
Summit block (5.4)
The summit block was on the other side of the short talus pile. A few easy moves on a mossy dirty arete led to the highpoint. Carson gave me a belay but there was no protection.
views from the summit
Descent
We rapped the route. Besides the top of pitch 6 which we backed up with another one of our nuts and a long sling, all other anchors were bolted. Each of the bolted anchors were attached with old tat with either a single wiregate or oval biner. We didn't get why someone would go through the trouble of adding nice bolts to all the anchors if they were only gonna equip them with tat instead of chain or rings. The tat was in OK shape. All the raps worked with our 70m rope except the last one, which required tying one end short and rapping single strand off the other end. We tied roughly 6m of webbing to the short side in order to pull it down.
sketchy rap anchor on pitch 6 (backed up with cams for first person rapping, and left nut+sling)
We landed back on the snow moat at around 5:30pm, then took another 2.5 hours to walk back to camp. We downclimbed the Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col, but would recommend rapping. There were three very obvious long chain rap stations starting from the col, which we used the following couple days.
afternoon at the Howser-Pigeon Col
This was a very high quality route- perfect for those who like climbing splitters, especially enduro wide ones. I could only imagine what went through in the heads of the first climbers who set eyes on it.
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