Jan 22-30, 2011, Campbell Icefield Chalet, BC

The usual suspects met up with an impressive group of skiers from Canmore AB for a week at Campbell Icefield Chalet. The hut is on the extreme western edge of the Rockies, a 15 min. heli flight from Donald, just up the road from Golden. The hut set a new standard for luxury with running water, electricity, separate bedrooms, sauna with hot water showers from a wood-stove mounted water tank, and a great interior layout. I think it even beats Kokanee. The hut has fabulous alpine terrain with tours to the Campbell Icefield, Bluewater Glacier, Mt. Alan Campbell, and alpine bowls. There is tree and glade skiing below the hut, but runs are limited to about 1,000' or less.

We arrived to 2m of fresh snow on top of facets but saw no instability during the week. About 130 cm of fresh fell during the week but it remained cloudy and foggy for most of the week with poor visibility. We stuck to the trees most days and only had the visibility to go to the alpine on 2 days. Great bottomless powder in the glades (refreshed daily) on runs up to 40 degrees kept us happy but I wish we had the weather to tour more of the alpine. We'll be back, hopefully in better weather.