Need Advice on Pigeon Spire - West Ridge - Bugaboos

Heading out to the Bugaboos in early August with the intent of heading up the West Ridge of Pigeon Spire. Nearly all the info I can find calls it the best 5.4 ever, and mostly consisting of Class IV scrambling. I'm very comfortable on 5.3-5.6 stuff, and have following multiple multi-pitch 5.7's. Any insight into this route and approach? What pro did you place, if any, and is the route generally easy to follow? Insights appreciated.

Approach is serious. From Applebee camp you will head to the col, climb the col, descend to the glacier on the far side and cross it for a mile or so to the far side of pigeon. The glacier is crevassed, so plan accordingly. You'll probably want at least light hikers (goretex) with crampons and one axe for this. I here a lot of people saying they would be fine with trail runners and crampons, I would not have been. However, this is obviously condition dependent and varies by time of year. You will obviously have to descend this on the way back.

The route itself is easy to follow, standard alpine rack, plenty of opportunity for gear. We simul-climbed the whole thing, which I think is perfect for this route.

I climbed a few years ago with my Mother and a friend. One of the most enjoyable days I've had out in the mountains.

The casual-ness of the approach will depend on your experience with steep-ish snow. It was smart for us to have boots, especially for mom, but now I'd usually prefer trail runners and crampons. An axe is a good idea. Late in the day, crampons balled up like crazy and were a hindrance.

The route is plenty easy to follow. We simul-climbed with mom in the lead so she could set the pace and path. This was her first gear lead and she had no problems. We switched off at the snow traverse near the top.

Cheers to all folks. Have both better confidence and wisdom now.

It's been a few years now, but when we were there in 2009 it was easier to approach by going around Snowpatch to the left. The normal route I think Paul is describing is to ascend the col between Snowpatch and Bugaboo Spires, then head left and up to the col at the base of the W. Ridge of Pigeon.

We went down from Applebee, around the south side of Snowpatch and the south side of Pigeon and up to the col at the base of the W. Ridge from the south.

At the time this was safer (and probably easier) than going up the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col because there was a lot of rockfall that year. That definitely could have changed by now, though.