Selkirk Lodge is one of the first backcountry lodges in the Selkirks. Built in the 1980’s by Steve Devine who died in an avalanche shortly after the lodge was built. His partner Grania Devine continued their dream with her sister Reinet and daughter Kate who carry on the tradition. Kudo’s to these Selkirk women to persist with their dream despite the odds! The lodge sits at 2210m near the Albert Glacier. It is only accessible by Helicopter.
We have been to pretty much all the lodges in the Selkirks. There are many reasons to go to these lodges, the least of which is the blower pow, glaciers and immersered ski experience. Some of the Lodges require a guide. We tend to shy away from big groups but sometimes, if you want to go on these trips you have to go with a guide. We went to Battle Abbey in Feb 2011 and had a great time. We signed up for this Selkirk Lodge trip during this time since we heard its terrain is comparable. We signed up to be guided by Robson Gmoser, Marco Delesalle of Great Divide Mountaineering and Kelly Major who has cooked for us before. Unfortunately Robson couldn’t join us so the other guide on this trip was Kate Devine who basically grew up here.
We met at 5:30am at Denny’s for Waiver signing and the shuttle to Selkirk Tangiers staging who would be flying us in.
The flight in required two trips in the Bell205.
Another shot of the heli cause they are cool. I must add here that the Selkirk Heli Pilots are amazing… Unfortunately we didn’t have very good vis during this trip so epic scenery shots are lacking. We did get some good pow shots though!
Marco is getting Peter to sign his waiver. More Waivers!
Our group consisted of 7 people from Calgary – Dean and Shona Zuber, Paul Wierzba, Ron Chapman, Peter Mulholland, Dave Mulholland, Kevin Chmilar, a Revy local – Tom McDonald, and two from Canmore Serge and Deb, and Lee and I.
Kelly Major of Backcountry Bistro chef extraordinaire! Right away she is getting lunch ready so we can get food, get out, practice our transciever searches and do some skiing!
The Lodge.
Kate and Marco are going over the required transciever searching and avalanche rescue.
Once that is done we head up to Polaroid, to take a run down the Lodge Run, Balls of Chrome and Marten. Trailbreaking was DEEP and vis was not so good… could be a tree skiing week.
Top of Polaroid
We go down to the top of Balls of Chrome.You can see Bavarian in the back and the Come Now ridge in the foreground.
I think this is Dean in the trees.
Me, you can tell cause I have a bright Jacket!
Bottom of Balls of Chrome. We spent most of our time skiing trees since Vis wasn’t cooperating.
The Albert Glacier. Had to get a picture incase we didn’t see it again!
Dean skinning up
Our Skin home on most days across the Lodge run.
Back at the hut, the sun room in the back. The LARGE fireplace that is used to melt snow which is how water is collected here. They do have a pretty good system but you do have to regularly collect buckets of snow, which are a lot lighter then buckets of water…
Sitting room where the guides spent most of their time writing notes. Reinet and Kate chillin’ in the back.
Kelly’s yummy Chicken!
People getting satisfied!
1000m Climbing 7.6km
5:07 total time ( 2:35moving time)
