The Kananaskis Country Hut
The Alpine Club of Canada’s Elk Lakes Cabin is a great base for alpine and ice climbing. With year-round access, the cabin is one of the most popular for local and visiting backcountry enthusiasts. Built in 1992, the hut sits between the French and Italian Military Group mountain ranges. Originally built to house BC Parks rangers, it was opened to the public a decade later. With world-class landscapes around the cabin, including rocky peaks, cascading falls and remnant glaciers, this should be on your list of places to stay.
The cabin sleeps up to 14 people, which can get cozy in the winter. There is nothing better than coming back from a long day on the ice, skiing up to the hut, stripping wet gear off and sitting by the wood stove in your dry hut wear. It’s a small building, but there is a kitchen area and living room with tables and chairs. The sleeping area is in the loft, which ensures a warm night sleep. The kitchen is fully furnished with everything you need, even muffin pans for those who like to cook muffins in the mountains. When the sun goes down, you spark up one of the several propane lights. For water, the visitor must walk 10 metres west to Elkan Creek, which even f lows in the winter. Otherwise, there is a large pot for melting snow. For those wondering about yellow snow, there is an outhouse 10 metres east of the cabin.
Around the hut are a number of mountaineering objectives up the jagged peaks: Fox, Aosta, Petain, Castelnau and Nivelle. For those going for Mount Joffre in the summer, it’s good to bring bivy gear for a high camp. For ice climbers, across the Upper Lake and along the south wall of Mount Fox are a number of great routes. Dunlap is a 100- metre WI5+, which is one of the best routes in the range. Elk Tear is steep column that goes at WI5 for 140 metres. The routes have some serious avalanche terrain, so have the proper equipment, training and preparations. The hut is on the west side of the continental divide, which means there is some great snow for ski touring.
The hut sits at 1,750 metres and is easily accessed in a few hours. Drive to Elk Pass Trail and ski or hike roughly 10 km, on average it takes between three and four hours. It’s relatively close to Calgary compared to other huts and despite having such great ice climbing, you will likely have the climbs to yourself.– Reservations are required at all ACC facilities. Reservations are made through the national office at the Canmore Clubhouse.
403.678.3200, extension 0 403.678.3224