schubwa
New member
My friend Scot Kallar has organized week long hut trips for years and they’ve hit a lot of the top ones: Powder Creek, Sorcerer, Fairy Meadows, Golden Alpine Holidays, etc. But this year I skipped Baldface Snowcats to go with his group to the Selkirk Lodge. I have heard good stuff about this hut located across from the Justice Glacier and the Albert Icefield. We’re mostly AT skiers with three telemarketers.
It’s not a bad connection from Bend as you take an hour flight to SeaTac and then another hour to Kelowna, BC in the Okanagan Valley. It’s another two hours or so by car to Revelstoke, where we staged with Selkirk Tangiers to fly from Albert Canyon Heliport. It’s a 12k and over 1500 meter ascent to the lodge. The heliport is located right off the Trans Canada Highway about 30 klicks west of Rogers Pass. Pretty much the bulls eye in BC’s interior mountain's snowbelt.
I ran into a bunch of Canadians returning from a week in Cabo and was seriously second-guessing my decision to go skiing rather than go to the tropics. Especially after following the snow reports explaining the area had a sub-standard snow season and has several persistent buried surface hoar layers resulting in some recent major avy activity. But upon arrival at the lodge, my fears soon evaporated as I realized I was with great company, at a fun and famous lodge surrounded by some seriously eye-popping scenery and gigantic terrain.
After landing and getting settled in, we went out and did a through beacon training session followed by a mock accident scenario with five buried skiers. They were located in less than 10 minutes, which was reassuring. Our guide, Ken Bibby, has guided this group before so there is a great bond. Our tail gunner is Eric Ostopkevich, whom I met a few years ago as he was guiding at Baldface.
This morning dawned with snowfall and it was fairly windy. Skiing in the alpine was out of the question, so we jumped into the steep but skier-packed slopes below the lodge in the trees. It was way better than I thought it’d be and actually got better as the snow continued to fall. We have more snow forecast tomorrow with clearing on Tuesday.
Here is the Justice Glacier yesterday from the Lodge's backyard. Storm clouds moving in.
Views towards the Albert Icefield (center left) off the deck. There is just soooo much terrain up here.
The fellows getting ready to head back down. We had about 10cm today and it's still going as I write this in the lodge. Guides are checking the Canadian Avalanche site for reports and some insight into tomorrow.
This run was later in the day and our favorite. It's literally right below the lodge as all the alpine terrain is above. Nice settled snow with a fresh topping. We could tackle steeper slopes here as they're used all season and are skier-compacted. It's all the other stuff that has low probability but high consequences if you trigger something.
Heading back in to shower, have a draft and eat dinner and dessert. Oh yeah.
It’s not a bad connection from Bend as you take an hour flight to SeaTac and then another hour to Kelowna, BC in the Okanagan Valley. It’s another two hours or so by car to Revelstoke, where we staged with Selkirk Tangiers to fly from Albert Canyon Heliport. It’s a 12k and over 1500 meter ascent to the lodge. The heliport is located right off the Trans Canada Highway about 30 klicks west of Rogers Pass. Pretty much the bulls eye in BC’s interior mountain's snowbelt.
I ran into a bunch of Canadians returning from a week in Cabo and was seriously second-guessing my decision to go skiing rather than go to the tropics. Especially after following the snow reports explaining the area had a sub-standard snow season and has several persistent buried surface hoar layers resulting in some recent major avy activity. But upon arrival at the lodge, my fears soon evaporated as I realized I was with great company, at a fun and famous lodge surrounded by some seriously eye-popping scenery and gigantic terrain.
After landing and getting settled in, we went out and did a through beacon training session followed by a mock accident scenario with five buried skiers. They were located in less than 10 minutes, which was reassuring. Our guide, Ken Bibby, has guided this group before so there is a great bond. Our tail gunner is Eric Ostopkevich, whom I met a few years ago as he was guiding at Baldface.
This morning dawned with snowfall and it was fairly windy. Skiing in the alpine was out of the question, so we jumped into the steep but skier-packed slopes below the lodge in the trees. It was way better than I thought it’d be and actually got better as the snow continued to fall. We have more snow forecast tomorrow with clearing on Tuesday.
Here is the Justice Glacier yesterday from the Lodge's backyard. Storm clouds moving in.
Views towards the Albert Icefield (center left) off the deck. There is just soooo much terrain up here.
The fellows getting ready to head back down. We had about 10cm today and it's still going as I write this in the lodge. Guides are checking the Canadian Avalanche site for reports and some insight into tomorrow.
This run was later in the day and our favorite. It's literally right below the lodge as all the alpine terrain is above. Nice settled snow with a fresh topping. We could tackle steeper slopes here as they're used all season and are skier-compacted. It's all the other stuff that has low probability but high consequences if you trigger something.
Heading back in to shower, have a draft and eat dinner and dessert. Oh yeah.