The Complete White Buddha Tour

Photos, topos and routes by Glenn Reisenhofer and Ian Groll

The White Buddha is a suntrapped small getaway found west of Bragg Creek. It is climbable most months of the year – a rarity – so long as you don’t mind walking the extra leg from the winter gate and breaking some trail in snow. Make note that any snow plus recent sunshine can result in rockfall from the top of the cliff, so best to wear a helmet. Same goes for the Highest Crag where people descending the trail above may kick loose stones over the edge, use caution.

The north facing Prairie Creek crag is quite cold unless hot days prevail. With only a 10 minute walk away between crags one can dial the temperature as needed – some folks use the White Buddha as a bouldering warmup, then head over to Prairie for a day of sport climbing.

From Bragg Creek, drive west on Hwy#66 to the Powderface Creek trailhead parking area. From Dec.1-May15 there is a winter gate closure just past Elbow Falls, so you must walk in, but it is casual and adds only 5 or so minutes to your hike. You will start to hike up on the trail but soon flattens out. You will see the yellow cliff above you to the north and soon a trail leading off the main hiking trail, and bank on another 10 minutes puff up the open slope to the base.

Follow the photos below (by clicking on each photo it brings you to the next photo) starting on the far west end of the White Buddha outcrop and the Tour ends at the “Highest Crag” on the far east end.

A rough TOPO for the area can be found in the Topos drop-down menu.

The White Buddha Trad Tour is as follows:

Margaret’s Sandwich 10a

Karuna Korner 5.3

Cafe Time 5.4

Teenie Weenie(ignore the bolts) 5.6

Shake, Rattle and Roll 10a/b (to date not led on gear)

Howdy Partner 5.5

Birdy Num Num 5.9

Siddhartha 5.9

Glenn has supplied us with a list of possible creatures you may see near the White Buddha: pine marten, red squirrel, ravens, goshawk, beaver chews, chickmonk, townsend solitarie, cougar tracks, deer, hare, pygmy owl, robins, fisher tracks, gray jays, moose scat/tracks, canada geese, pine grosbeak, black bear, dipper, merlin, chickadees, lynx tracks and waxwings. You may also spot ‘sport climbers’.

All photos and route descriptions by Glenn Reisenhofer, 2016.