Rogers Pass: Cross Country Skiing to Wheeler Hut

The Alpine Club of Canada has an awesome network of huts.  Some of them are family-friendly, others are backcountry powder paradises or remote refuges for climbers. My friend Tanya who blogs at Rockies Family Adventures put out an invite for other families to join them on their little weekend adventure to A.O. Wheeler Hut in the Illecillawaet Valley of Glacier National Park.  We jumped at the chance, especially since staying in something as ‘fancy’ as a cabin isn’t typical for us.  It seemed like the perfect way to kick off our winter season.

The hut sleeps twenty-four people in the winter and Tanya booked the entire thing and filled it up with people that she had connections with.  It was a smart move to avoid sharing with random strangers or people who might not appreciate sharing a hut with kids! We took our own sleeping bags, personal belongings and food. The hut is kitted out with sleeping platforms and mattresses, propane stoves and ovens, propane lighting, woodburning stoves and a giant firewood supply.  Cooking and eating utensils are also provided. The water source is the nearby creek or snowmelt, and all the pails and pots are supplied to make melting and purifying drinking water a fairly easy process.  The part that makes Wheeler Hut so family-friendly is that it is an easy 1.5km snowshoe or cross country ski from the Illecillewaet Campground parking lot, which is 3.5 km west of Rogers Pass.

Staying in a backcountry hut is a shared, rustic experience. Sleeping, kitchen and living areas are communal.  It is user-maintained, meaning that the custodial work of keeping the hut clean, chopping firewood and shovelling snow is done by the guests.

We stayed two nights and a couple of our kids kept coming up to me and telling me how cool they thought it would be if we had our own cabin in the woods.  They added all sorts of ideas of where and how and why.  I 100% agree!  Wouldn’t that be so cool? I have daydreamed about stuff like that since I was a kid too!

Many of the guests of the historic Wheeler Hut come for the myriad of ski touring or mountaineering opportunities in the area.  We came for the community hut experience and to get out and explore on our cross country ski’s and snowshoes.  The kids all carried their own packs and we xc skied into the hut.  The trail directly out of the parking lot is a little bit steep, but its short and before you know it you are on level ground and the travel is easy.After getting ourselves organized at the hut, the kids played outside and played games inside and we stayed cozy warm with woodburning fires in two separate lounges on either end of the hut.  The sleeping platforms are partly partitioned giving 4 vaguely separated sleeping areas upstairs.  There is nothing sound-proof about it, so it helps if people are all on a similar planet for acceptable quiet hours.  The next morning we went exploring on snowshoes further up the valley.It is an area steeped in history from the tourist boom in the late 1800’s.  Glacier House was a fancy hotel that served the tourists that came by train to appreciate this beautiful area.  All that remains is the old concrete piles that the kids had fun jumping off!The passage up the valley becomes limited as you enter into avalanche terrain. You get occasional glimpses of the peaks that are famed for ski touring.The historic bridge that is right by the hut gave spectacular views of the surrounding mountains during Blue Hour.Our final morning we packed up and cleaned the hut.  All of the other families headed back to the parking lot so they could get home in good time.  We wanted to linger a bit longer so we skied a loop up to the Meeting of the Waters and came back to the hut for lunch.All too soon, it was time for our departure also.

Backcountry living is one of my favourite things to do. I love to get unplugged and disconnected from the world and I love the simple rhythms that come with basic living and connecting with others. If you are looking for some other ideas for family backcountry hut adventures click here!