Winter 2010 - The Alpine Club of Canada

Alpine Club huts receive summer renovations
by Lynn Martel
Visitors staying at the Alpine Club
of Canada’s Stanley Mitchell and
Elizabeth Parker Huts will be
happy to know they’ve got a new roof and
some new logs and chinking in the hut
walls keeping them warm and dry this
winter.
A new snap lock metal roof, which
was installed at Stanley Mitchell Hut in
Little Yoho Valley, and eight new base
logs, which were installed to replace older
degraded logs at Elizabeth Parker Hut
at Lake O’Hara, were two major projects
along with several smaller maintenance
jobs undertaken at more than half a
dozen of the ACC’s backcountry huts
over the summer season.
With 25 huts located in the Canadian
Rockies and in the mountains of BC,
regular maintenance is an ongoing concern,
said Rick Gardiner, facilities director
for the ACC.
But having two major projects, each
costing approximately $20,000 carried out
during a single summer season made this
year an especially busy one, he said.
“The last couple of years, we’ve had
a major project per year. Last summer
Stanley Mitchell Hut got some new
logs, and Wheeler Hut got a new roof,”
Gardiner said. “But this was a big one.”
The extensive program included
a fresh coat of oil on the exterior of
Elizabeth Parker Hut, replacement of
25 glass window panes, installing a new
kitchen complete with a new stove and
oven, and chimney re-pointing to replace
sections of mortar that had dried out and
fallen off. Adjacent to the main cabin,
the smaller Wiwaxy Cabin had its logs
re-chinked, its interior and exterior oiled
and stone work done on its foundation.
To carry out the technically exacting
log work, the ACC hired Edmonton
area log-builder Dan Strand. The entire
cabin had to be jacked up to facilitate the
removal of old logs and installation of the
new ones.
“That’s a major undertaking,”
Gardiner said.
The 10-day project also included the
placement of new stones to improve the
pathways in the immediate vicinity of the
hut.
In addition to the new roof, which
was installed in June over a two-week
period during which the hut was closed
to guests, SM Hut also had new oil
applied to its exterior and a “very large
looming tree” was removed.
As national class II heritage sites,
Stanley Mitchell, which was built in 1939,
and Elizabeth Parker, constructed in 1919
by the CPR, require adherence to stringent
guidelines when any structural work
is carried out.
Another substantial project this
summer was the replacement of the floor
at Bow Hut with a durable recycled
rubber-tiled floor.
“It just keeps getting busier and
busier up there every year,” Gardiner said.
Currently, Bow Hut sees 3,200 visitor
nights per year, while Stanley Mitchell
hosts 2,500 overnight stays per year, the
majority during the summer when the
hut is easier to access. Elizabeth Parker,
among the ACC’s most accessible huts
year-round, welcomes 4,400 overnight
stays annually.
Maintenance work is carried out by
a full-time staff of three people with the
help of a dedicated and skilled roster of
volunteers.
“We do have a core of about a dozen
Stanley Mitchell Hut.
photo by Darren Rudy.
volunteers who come up for just about
every work party,” Gardiner said. “We
couldn’t do it without them.”
Other work projects completed
over the summer include a new metal
roof installed on the basic four-person
Castle Mountain climbers’ shelter, and
a new coat of paint applied to the walls
and floor of the Peter and Catharine
Whyte (Peyto) Hut at the north end of
the Wapta Icefield. In September the
Bill Putnam (Fairy Meadow) Hut was
outfitted with a new recycled rubber-tiled
floor, and the 12-person Asulkan Hut in
BC’s Glacier National Park is scheduled
to receive a new outhouse barrel deck, a
new furnace and new sleeping pads. In
Canmore, the ACC Clubhouse’s kitchen
was renovated, new energy efficient
windows installed and solar panels added
to heat water.
With hut visitors increasing every
year, including many who are new to
backcountry huts or unaware of the
ACC’s role as Canada’s climbing club, the
ACC is planning to hire roving custodians
to help welcome visitors and provide
guidance on proper hut etiquette.
“We’re seeing more and more people
not used to hut life like our members are,”
Gardiner said. “We want to help point
out many things they might not know if
it’s their first visit, and show people how
significant these huts are.”
Reprinted with permission from the
Rocky Mountain Outlook.
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18 Alpine Club of Canada Gazette Winter 2010