Pigeon Spire

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This post is a featured excerpt from Mountain Voices: The Mountain Legacy Project and a Century of Change in Western Canada (November 2025), edited by Eric Higgs, Zac Robinson, Mary Sanseverino, and Kristen Walsh. This collection is the latest book in our Canadian History and Environment series with University of Calgary Press, which is edited by Alan MacEachern. This excerpt is published in collaboration with the Alpine Club of Canada.

Cover of Mountain Voices: The Mountain Legacy Project and a Century of Change in Western Canada

My last day of grade six is tomorrow. While most of my friends are looking forward to summer camps and trips to their cabins, my parents and I are planning a climbing trip to the Bugaboos with my neighbour Jesse, who is like an older sister to me.

My friends and I have a lot in common, but probably the biggest difference is that both my parents are mountain guides. From taking my first helicopter ride at four weeks old to joining a local ski club in Japan at the age of four while my parents were guiding, very little in my life would be considered normal in my friends’ eyes.

Sometimes I wake up and find a note on the kitchen table that says, “Hey Peanut, alpine start this morning. Have a good day at school. Love you so much.”

When I was really little, a surprise visit from my grandparents to step in and take care of me could be expected almost every month. Once I was old enough, my parents started taking me on some of their day trips to join the activities. I learned to balance school life and adventures, and that brings me so much joy. When I was seven, to not break my 100-day fiddle practice challenge, I skied with my violin into Lake O’Hara Lodge on cross-country skis. I jumped in on overnight adventures too, like trips to Mistaya Lodge, Talus Lodge, the Bugaboos, and, most recently, the Wapta Traverse on my twelfth birthday!

I love being the daughter of two guides who practically live on the peaks, glaciers, and crags of the world’s mountains. A lot of the time, I am right beside them with a big smile and my puppy Lupin’s leash in my hands.

The Bugaboo Glacier: 1910 (top), 2015 (bottom). The modern image, taken by Marc Piché (Ella’s dad), shows the glacier with Anniversary Mountain on the left, Hound’s Tooth in the middle, and Snowpatch Spire, with Pigeon Spire behind. Byron Harmon, who by all accounts was elated at the sight of the Bugaboo Glacier, was closer to the snout when he took the 1910 image. Only the shoulder of Anniversary Mountain shows on the left side of Harmon’s photo, and he is angling up the drainage, but the difference in glacial extent is still clearly evident. The Bugaboo Glacier: 1910 (top), 2015 (bottom). The modern image, taken by Marc Piché (Ella’s dad), shows the glacier with Anniversary Mountain on the left, Hound’s Tooth in the middle, and Snowpatch Spire, with Pigeon Spire behind. Byron Harmon, who by all accounts was elated at the sight of the Bugaboo Glacier, was closer to the snout when he took the 1910 image. Only the shoulder of Anniversary Mountain shows on the left side of Harmon’s photo, and he is angling up the drainage, but the difference in glacial extent is still clearly evident.
The Bugaboo Glacier: 1910 (right), 2015 (left). The modern image, taken by Marc Piché (Ella’s dad), shows the glacier with Anniversary Mountain on the left, Hound’s Tooth in the middle, and Snowpatch Spire, with Pigeon Spire behind. Byron Harmon, who by all accounts was elated at the sight of the Bugaboo Glacier, was closer to the snout when he took the 1910 image. Only the shoulder of Anniversary Mountain shows on the left side of Harmon’s photo, and he is angling up the drainage, but the difference in glacial extent is still clearly evident. [Right: Byron Harmon, 1910, courtesy of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies V263 / NA – 860; Left: Marc Piché, 2015]

Now, back to planning this summer’s trip. The Bugaboos have always been a very special place for me. I spent a big part of my early years in the cozy CMH Bugaboo Lodge in the valley below the spires, while my mom was working. I have done many trips to the spires over the years since then. My goal this summer is to climb the West Ridge of Pigeon Spire, and hopefully the Kain Route on Bugaboo Spire if I still have enough energy. Both of these routes are classics that people come to from all around the world to climb. I’m so excited to finally stand on these two summits that I’ve spent so much time staring at my whole life. After hearing so many stories about climbing them, I will finally have some stories of my own.

This trip is going to be amazing. I love the feeling of being up high, the wind in my hair, and views that go on forever. I can’t wait to share it with Jesse and show her why the Bugaboos are so special to me. I hope reading my story will inspire other young people to think about their special mountain places and let that special connection carry them forward in their own life–adventure balance.

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Ella Molnar-Piché

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