Take Your Hut Adventures Further This Winter
The ACC operates 16 huts in the winter months. The best-known and most accessible ones such as Elizabeth Parker Hut, Elk Lakes Cabin and Cameron Lake Cabin are in high demand. But there are several options for more remote and less crowded options – for both the huts and the terrain. If you’re looking for winter adventure, and deep snow to enjoy all to yourself, check out these options.
Stanley Mitchell Hut. Photo: @pebbleshoo
Stanley Mitchell Hut
Sleeps: up to 22 in winter
Approach: Your party should consist of strong skiers if you’re planning on making the 23km trip into Stanley Mitchell Hut in a day. An option is overnighting at the Takakkaw Falls campground.
The Dream Trip: Stanley Mitchell is large and well-equipped enough to be a base for a ski trip of a week or more. And more importantly, there is enough fantastic ski terrain to support a trip that long. Before heli-skiing, Hans Gmoser began CMH with trips based out of this hut.
Sydney Vallance (Fryatt) Hut. Photo: @TheOutdoorLife
Sydney Vallance (Fryatt) Hut
Sleeps: up to 12 in winter
Fryatt Hut. Photo by Spencer Patrick.
Approach: Start early because it will take you a full day to get to Fryatt, although later in the season you can save some kms by crossing the frozen Athabasca River directly from the highway.
The Dream Trip: Four days: a day to ski in, two days to explore the vast terrain of the upper Fryatt Valley and a day to ski out would be a trip you’d remember a lifetime.
Peyto Hut. Photo: @pebbleshoo
Balfour Hut. Photo: @pebbleshoo
Peyto Hut or Balfour Hut (from Bow)
The Bow Hut is well known as the heart of the Wapta as well as the jump-off point for many of the best adventures on the icefields. The Peyto and Balfour Huts are each a relatively short hop from Bow, to the north and south, respectively.
Below: Peyto Hut photos by Pebbleshoo. Click to enlarge.
Sleeps: Both Peyto and Balfour sleep up to 16 in the winter
Approach: For either Bow to Balfour or Bow to Peyto, the distance (about 7 km) and the elevation gain (580m to Balfour, 430m to Peyto) are manageable. But you’re going to want good visibility as Wapta navigation can be tricky in a whiteout.
Below: Balfour Hut photos by Pebbleshoo. Click to enlarge.
The Dream Trip: Skiing from Bow to either Peyto or Balfour Hut is a nice, gradual step toward longer glacier crossings, hut-to-hut trips and a full Wapta or Bow-Yoho Traverse. Add on a day or two to properly explore the slopes in the areas before returning to Bow.
Skiing at Bow Hut. Photo by Michelle Katcher-Roberts.
Bow Hut. Photo: @pebbleshoo
