Around the start of winter in 2023 going into 2024, my friend Meredith asked if I was interested in a hut trip in Canada for the following season. Without knowing much of the details, I immediately said yes and was stoked to learn more about what this might involve. To my surprise, Meredith and a few others had booked an entire hut with 16 total people out in the remote Purcell mountain range backcountry. This was a luxurious cabin that was fully staffed with guides, a chef, and an accompanying airport that would fly us out there in a series of helicopter rides. We’d stay there for about a week and ski tour the incredible Purcell mountain neighboring glacier national park. I didn’t even know this sort of trip was possible and was absolutely blown away by the thought. Now the hard part was waiting a full year to travel out to Canada and met our crew. Before then, my goal was to level up my ski touring skill set and hone in my set of gear to survive long days in the cold Canadian backcountry.
Skipping ahead to the start of the winter in 2024 going into 2025, my life changed quite a bit. I was now living in SF from LA, I had a ski lease with some friends in Lake Tahoe, and I was in much better shape than the previous year. The hut trip began in March and I had a ton of time to dial in my setup and get more comfortable on the skin track. That season our go to tour was Rubicon peak, where we could make quick laps and ski amazing gladed terrain with relatively low avy risk. I even got a new pair of touring boots, which were a bit lighter and way less painful than my last uncomfortable pair of Lange’s. I had also changed jobs and had quite a bit more flexibility taking off time than previously. This worked out perfectly as I could join another group of friends on a trip to Revelstoke for the week prior to our hut trip in the Purcell’s. So all that was left was to enjoy the remainder of the winter season and get ready for two weeks skiing in Canada
As the end of February arrived I had already skied about ~30 days that season, ran about 10-15 miles a week, and got in ~8 days of touring. I could not be more excited to test out my skills in bigger terrain and meet a new crew of capable skiers. Although I had known about a third of our group from college, the rest were friends of friends who happened to be good fits for this trip. Before I could meet them, I met my own crew at our Airbnb in Revelstoke, BC. There we were granted with about a foot of snow in the first storm of the week, covering up the melting spring snow below it. The first day skiing was probably our best, as we got some amazing fresh tracks and open powder bowls skiing on the North side of Revelstoke’s summit. Only about the top 1500 feet or so maintained good snow quality as temps below this line quickly warmed and changed the landscape into spring conditions. Despite this, we still had a great time reaping the good conditions for the first half of the week. My friends from the hut trip began to arrive the following Saturday and met us for a day of skiing at the resort. Unfortunately for them, there was no more snowfall and temps began to rise again. This made for a fun groomer day and we still had a great time enjoying the bluebird conditions as we toured the mountain once again. Sunday was our last day inbounds and we got a few runs in before I said goodbye to my friend group at Revelstoke to head back to Golden, BC. On our way there we drove through Roger’s Pass, which was part of the trans-Canadian highway through Glacier National Park and a famously great place for ski touring. Our destination was a big Airbnb for all those on the hut trip, which was located in a small logging town deep within the Canadian rocky mountains. Kicking Horse, another ski resort known for its imposing terrain, was also nearby and we managed to get two days passed discounted for the weekend after our hut trip. Regardless, I was mainly excited to meet our crew and do some final packing before we headed to the airport the next morning.
I woke up at 6 am and could not have been more excited to start our day. The airport was close by and we were greeted with two helicopters, our guides for the day, and an unfortunate set of low altitude clouds looming in the sky. We filled out some paperwork, packed our bags away, and then waited for a few hours until we could finally get a helicopter in the air. Finally flying out was a great relief and such a cool experience in itself. I flew in the larger of the two aircraft, an extended Bell Huey with an 11 passenger capacity and the biggest blades I had seen on a helicopter before. We all sat face to face and could see the mountains pass by eerily close below us as we made our way into the range. The flight lasted probably 20 mins or so and then we landed just 50 feet or so from the lodge sitting in the middle of a peaceful alpine meadow covered in endless blankets of snow. The lodge itself was immaculate and massive for its location deep within the mountains. There were two main buildings along with a sauna, one was the main lodge while the other hosted an accompanying family within a smaller chalet. The main lodge had three levels: one basement for the crew and storage, one main common space & kitchen, and a top floor containing many rooms & showers for our group of 16. I was blown away by how nice it all looked and how many staff members there were to take care of us. Before this I had never been on a trip this luxurious and mainly had gone on ski trips in true dirtbag fashion. This was a rare treat and I was loving every second.
That afternoon we quickly got ready for a introduction tour where we would practice some avalanche rescue skills and see some of the landscape in front of us for the first time. Our group was very large and generally had two guides with us at all times. For now we all traveled in one big pack, heading out to the top of the ridge nearby and skiing some of the trees to the valley below. Our lodge was a bit unusual in that it sat on a meadow across from the majority of accessible terrain and separated by a ~1000 ft climb up the valley. This made skiing in the morning very quick, but always required one more skin up at the end of the day. Regardless, it was still a great time that day and we got our first chance at skiing some fun and mellow trees into the drainage below. When we got back, we were greeted with an apres meal from the chef and got our first shower in before dinner. The food at this point was already spectacular and served as a stark contrast to our hard work on the skin track. Our meal that night was bone in chicken thighs with some incredible curry and vegetables on the side. Drinks were a la cart, but were a great addition to the trip too. Slowly I met more of our group that day and knew that we were all super capable and excited for the days ahead.
The next morning we awoke to prepared coffee and another amazing breakfast meal. Our guides had a whiteboard at the far side of our dining table with a plan laid out for the day and told us of a special surprise. Today was our best weather window and we had the opportunity for a ‘heli bump’. All 16 of us decided to go and take one more helicopter ride to the nearby Ptarmigan peak. This saved us about 3000 ft of elevation gain and placed us right above some glorious north facing alpine bowls to start the day. Adding to this, there was also a child ski influencer (?) who took one of the helicopter rides from the airport to see the nearby Copperstain mountain’s south face – it was a weird but interesting note from the morning. After taking in our first real ‘heli ski’ experience, we made our way down some incredible gullies and into a drainage below Copperstain. Soon we split into three groups and headed back up towards the NE side, which is almost impossible to access without a bump early in the day. Once we made it to the cornice lip of the summit ridge, we saw an untouched and wide open north face with the best powder I’ve skied that whole year. While the group behind us chose to lap this face a few times, my group made our way down and then continued to the valley floor below. That was until suddenly my ski pre-released and quickly vanished before my eyes as it flew over the ridge below us.
I had no idea how that could have happened so quickly and immediately changed my mood from stoked to anxious. Our guide was not very happy either and let me down the gully below us with one ski. This turned out to be quite hard work as it as deep snow and steep terrain. I definitely did not have a good look for my new friends accompanying me, but everyone stayed positive as we made it down to the valley below. Our guide had assumed the ski just flew down the entire face, but when we got there it was no where to be found. I tried to not think of the consequences until it was sure that the ski was lost, but it was hard to take it all in at once. Then we suddenly had a great idea to contact the group above us for help. Out of shear luck, one of them had brought a drone and he was able to fly it overhead. Another guide took the controls and thankfully was able to spot our tracks which led right to the lost ski. Ironically enough, if we had just looked over the ridge we would have found the ski not 50 ft from where it released. Regardless, the group behind us had one guide to spare and he thankfully retrieved the ski and made his way down to us in the valley. I was back to feeling okay, but our whole group knew that we had just narrowly avoided a horrible outcome for the trip (likely another helicopter ride).
Making it back from the valley floor also turned out to be difficult. There was about 2500 feet of climbing and part of it was through some steep powder and sketchy terrain. I was feeling exhausted from my one ski descent of this face and struggled up the rest of the slope. But that did not stop me and the group from having a good time. We did another lap on ‘Moonraker’, the NE powder slope on the backside of Copperstain and then headed back up to Ptarmigan for our last alpine lap of the day. Skiing these faces was absolutely spectacular and made me appreciate how finding these remote locations could result in some crazy untouched terrain. Granted this case was a bit special, we were paying for a shortcut to experience this, but it still served as a reminder for the future. Finding these moments in the remote backcountry was absolutely worthwhile. When we made it back to the valley, we had just skied nearly 5000 ft of incredible terrain and were ready for one last push up ‘Hydro Hill’. This was the climb back to the cabin and went relatively quick this time. I was still feeling quite exhausted as this was probably the biggest day of the trip and the biggest tour I had ever done to date. Luckily our chef Josef was there to greet us with another spectacular apres snack: pizza and beers. Shortly after we were back stretching and showering on the top floor and getting ready for the main courses. Taking a look outside and back onto the mountains we had just skied had me in a loss for words. I was incredibly grateful to be on a trip with friends skiing, let alone in a place as beautiful as this and having some pretty insane luck with getting my ski back earlier in the day. The next morning was about to be another big day, so after dinner it wasn’t long before we were all back in bed and excited to start it all over again.
The next morning we again woke up to coffee, an amazing breakfast, and our guides ready with a whiteboard describing our plan for the day. And that plan was to take a look skin north and over to a wide open face of glades called ‘The Burn’. I chose to join the fast group again and we headed out promptly at 9 am to chase some fun powder laps. The view on the way over was fantastic and we were gifted with relatively low elevation gain on the way there. Instead we would once again head down into the valley once we arrived and begin the first climb of the day. The first lap was awesome and filled with playful wooded terrain and lots of snow. I paired up with a friend and we chased each other through pillows & between burnt trees down to the drainage below. Our group was antsy to get back up for round 2 and we set the pace strong. Each lap was just below 1000 ft of gain and we generally paced each between 45-60 mins. Soon after we were joined by the other groups, who would pass us on the uphills and downhills as we zig-zag-ed through the terrain. In total we made four laps that day and totaled about 4500 ft of gain, still a crazy big day for me normally. In addition, we also had about 3 miles of traversing to make it back to the cabin – which went by faster as I got to know more of our group. That night we debated over what would be the next objective as we soaked in the sauna and sipped on some a la cart brews. We all wanted to get back to the alpine, but also were eying a set of big kickers that our chef had constructed at the top of the glades near our hut. Our guides were hesitant to commit that night, so we kept faith and enjoyed another night of great meals, some stretching, and hanging out in the common space.
Another morning just as nice as the last and we were gifted with an amazing plan for the day: we would venture out to Porcupine mountain, the last of the three in the valley we had yet to ski. On porcupine there were two gigantic bowls that are rarely skied at the lodge due to their steep aspects and generally large approaches. Since we were skiing in early March and didn’t have a ton of recent snowfall, the snowpack was generally stable enough for us to attempt these glorious objectives. And so our whole group mobilized into one for our last day and made our way out across the valley once more. We first skied the trees (‘Kneegrinder Glades’) and then our guide set a skintrack up to the treeline of Purcupine. The views from this point on the rest of the valley were incredible. Endless alpine terrain loomed below us and there was no civilization in sight. To our west was the incredibly prominent Mt. Sir Donald, which stood about 2000 ft taller than the peaks on our end of the valley and housed massive glaciers on all sides. To our south was the tenured helicopter skiing terrain, which had all the powder faces and pillow lines I would imagine it to be. Soon after we began to climb the ridge proper and into our first line of the day: ‘Double Espresso’. This was a massive north facing alpine bowl completely untouched for our group of now 19 (3 guides accompanied us). We all took turns cruising down and making big arching turns. At the bottom we were all stoked as usual and took videos of each other coming down back to back. At this point we were all feeling great as the whole group had no issues coming up or down. The guides felt good too and led us back up an adjacent face and into our 2nd lap of the day. this time we were on ‘Long Overdue’, a face that none of the guides had skied all year due to its remoteness and exposure to avalanches. I think for most of us this was the highlight of the trip: 19 of us made it up two incredible alpine bowls in one of the most inspiring settings I’ve been in before. This second lap matched the first, as it was long enough to really savor the moment and have a ton of fun on the way down. I was feeling over the moon and excited to ski back down to the valley floor. There we had some bonus wiggles and bounces off boulder pillows as we slowly approached the treeline. Instead of climbing directly up Hydro Hill, a group of us diverted slightly to make it back to Yosef’s big kickers at the top of the ridge. There we all took turns hitting the smaller of the jumps and had a ton of fun leaping into a powdery runout below. It was a bittersweet moment because after the last jump, we hiked up the ridge one last time and skied back down to the lodge. The next day we would fly out in the morning and end one of the best ski vacations of my life.
Our group was feeling great after the last day of touring and reminisced over the week with a round of ‘Roses & Thorns’ for dinner. It was another great meal and we were able to get everyone in the hut (including guides & our Chalet family) to participate by stating their least & most favorite moments from the trip. For me it was the fact that I met such a cool group of people and accomplished my goal of ‘hanging’ with the fast crew the whole time. After dinner we hung out as usual and savored the hut’s amenities for one last night. In the morning, we scrambled to clean out our rooms, pack bags, and shuffle back into the helicopters for our journey back to Golden. Some of us were leaving that next day while myself and a smaller group would stay to ski some more in bounds days at Kicking Horse. At this point I had already skied 10 days, but was equally excited to take lifts again and see some new terrain. Kicking horse turned out to be a crazy and intimidating mountain. Its known for steep ridges lined with countless chutes on either side. It only had three lifts in the entire resort, which meant there was a ton of hiking involved for those adventurous enough to explore the biggest lines. Our group made a hike out to ‘Terminator 2’ peak that first day and experienced the most sketch portion of the trip: an exposed hike up and crazy steep ski down. This was my favorite type of skiing and I was having a blast exploring this new terrain. In our view was also the south face of ‘Terminator 1’ which had hosted the Freeride World Tour earlier in the year (in bounds!).
The last day we also skied Kicking Horse and had a fantastic crew. We spent the majority of the day lapping chutes as fast as we could, pushing each other to ski in good style. We paused in a yurt for some lunch and beers before making our final lap of the day skiing some very technical and imposing terrain. I even blew out one of my shift bindings after sending off a cliff in the woods, but had no gear or physical injuries thankfully. After this I drove with a friend back to Calgary and grabbed a final meal with our crew. The next morning we would fly back to California and end our two week stint in some of the coolest areas I had ever been. This trip served as an experience of a lifetime, one that I will always remember. And the best part of the whole thing was that I met ~10 new people that all shared this experience and would help me progress in touring for the season to come. I’m incredibly grateful to be in a position where this is possible and to have had such a memorable experience along the way <3.
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