Introduction
There are always more places to visit, things to see, and cool lodges from which to ski tour. Someone once told Sharon and I that we had been to more ski touring lodges then anyone else we knew but we had never been to Hilda Hut.
We had toured in the Valkyr Range before in the south east part of British Columbia but at the Naumulten Lodge aka Valkyr Lodge. However, we'd never checked out the other Valkyr family of lodges so when last minute cancellations resulted in openings on a fully-guided, fully catered trip (run by Dan Morton of NWM Experience) to go to Hilda Hut in the Valkyr Range we jumped on the opportunity.
Emails, a call and a few trip logistics later we were leaving Nelson to go to Nakusp and to get ready to ski for a week.
Useful links
Nakusp
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Hilda Hut by moonlight
Staging and getting there
The Valkyr lodges are owned by Martin and Shelly Glasheen, locals to the area. You are helicoptered into the lodges and stage out of Burton, a small town just south of Nakusp in the centre of south eastern area B.C. You can also drive to Burton through Vernon or via Revelstoke via paved roads.
Be aware that due to COVID staff shortages there's not much for breakfast in Nakusp so make sure you get some food beforehand for the early morning. That morning we grabbed coffee at Nakusp, met Dan for paperwork then arrived at the Burton staging at 8:00am. It was actually with some sense of relief that everyone assembled for departure. COVID has hit the industry hard and everyone (guests and staff) are under strict protocols to abide by mandatory provincial health regulations. All that said, everyone stuck to the safety programme and off we went to look for our helicopter at staging.
The other Valkyr huts (Naumulten and the LQ Outpost) also stages out of Burton so flights and loading are managed by Valkyr staff. As it always seems with helicopters you should be prepared to wait your turn. Change-over day was problem-free and we were all at the lodge by early noon giving us a half-day to explore.
Burton staging
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Returning to Hilda as the sun goes down and the sauna is already cooking
The Lodge and terrain
Hilda Hut is at 1950m so you ski tour right out the door. All manner of treed terrain rings the hut. There are mellow practise slopes descending from and to the doorstep. There are steep treed shots and there is access to alpine at three contiguous peaks (Mt Hilda, Prough and McBride all approximately 400 - 500m above the hut). This means you can have ski tours that loop and lap the hut and you can also have tours that roam in the alpine.
Alpine trek to NW McBride
View looking W from the hut towards Gateway Col and the nearby runs of the Battlefield and the Norns
Carl on the Norns skiing one of the paths with Hilda Hut in the backdrop
Benet on the Battlefield
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Lee in the deep
The douglas fir and cedar timbers used for the construction of Hilda Hut were logged and milled by the Glasheen family then sent up to the lodge site by helicopter. Many hands made steady work in 2010/11 and the lodge opened for business in winter 2012.
12 guests are housed in separate 2 person rooms. There's a large anteroom where ski/outdoors gear can be stashed and dried, a large lounge above, a kitchen, a well-equipped tool room, cold room, ski gear foyer, running water (although it had frozen last week during a deep cold spell), indoor toilet/shower and sauna in a separate building. Valkyr also provides a staff custodian who stocks the fireplace, preps the sauna, makes sure the micro-hydro is working and keeps the lodge spic and span.
As mentioned Hilda has lots of variety of skiable terrain with the caveat that the terrain around this particular lodge is more biased towards advanced skiers. Although there some gentle slopes, beginner/intermediate powder skiers may well be intimidated as offerings are primarily steeper. There is also copious amounts of powder. Our trip in early January 2021 already yielded a 1.8m snowpack at treeline with more than 3m in alpine bowls!
Hilda Hut's snowpack at 1920m in early January is already head-height. Doing some avalanche skills trail refresher in some downtime during a wet spell
Backcountry skiing’s popularity has exploded in the past few years. Therefore availability of Valkyr Lodge's hut based offering is exceptionally limited. Your best option is to check in with guided offerings such as those offered by Dan via North West Mountain Experience or try to get a last minute cancellation.
Be aware that you have to commit to dates at least a year in advance. For a benchmark price look to pay CAD $1600 - $ 1800 per person for the bare bones self-guided self-catered trips but even then availability for that is three years out! More rates for Valkyr including the fully catered, fully guided trips are here (bottom of page). If you want to get on a trip contact Valkyr directly or guides like Dan at North West Mountain Experience directly.
Once you've booked your fiscal outlay may not be over. Consider trip cancellation insurance (useful link). Approximately 5% of the cost of your trip has you covered for any cancellation whether it be pandemic, sickness, injury, family or personal issues. Things happen; this helps you not be out-of-pocket.
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Martin is one of Valkyr's owners and is pictured in the Hilda drying room
Emily is custodian-in-training (all trips include a hut custodian) and was busy replenishing snow for the sauna
Marylene was our cook and is busy in the kitchen plating food. Dan looks on ready to help out.
Lodge Life
When you're on a 7 day hut-based touring trip your job for the next week is to step out of the door and go skiing. It's really quite that simple. If you're self-guided, another set of tasks will include getting weather + snowpack info and making route and touring plans. If you're self-catered then your tasks will also include planning meals and cooking.
In our opinion, catered trips are the way to go. For a few more hundred a person you hire a dedicated cook who knows how to make tasty food which sets you up for breakfast, lunch, appetizers and dinner.
Breakfast at Hilda
On a fully guided, fully catered trip the day will unfold as follows. Wake up at 6.30am or thereabouts. Stumble over to the kitchen and have coffee. Have granola and yogurt and/or something light. Breakfast is served at about 7am or shortly thereafter. Marylene always gave us the run-down on what food she served; she is a professional cook and her pride + quality of offering is remarkable.
Mid-way through breakfast, Dan backed up by Amelie (Dan's fellow assistant professional guide) will then give us weather and snowpack information. Also then discussed would be the touring programme offering for the day. Both Dan and Amelie were up well before us (as were the rest of the staff) and incorporate variations in the plan to account for uncertainties as well as to give less ambitious guests the ability to sit out a lap by returning to Hilda Hut or an alternative tour.
There's so much food for dinner that sometimes it got repurposed for lunch. Following this Marylene dinner offering, trout sandwiches were on order the next day
Lunch is then on the table after breakfast is concluded and we pack what we eat. With the knowledge that we're either going to be touring high or staying low and lapping pow we then know what and how to pack. Ready to go at about 8am and out the door we go for the day's adventure.
Part of the programme of a guided group is making plans to accomodate different wants, needs, strengths and desires; and to adjust to variable conditions. After a mid-week powder dump degraded into mixed precipitation and a natural cycle of avalanches, we went to the alpine. The following days brought a mix of bluebird (when we went high), then a series of mixed weather days giving us windows of momentary visibility. We adjusted and scoped out terrain.
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Guides and staff
Dan and Amelie helped get us the goods, monitored conditions and worked out programmes that had people happy and safe
Dan in his natural environment in Hilda Bowl
Amelie shepharded me down after I managed to break a ski and had to one-foot out
Marylene is a professional chef. She had control of kitchen and food; consistently dealing out high-end restaurant aesthetic quality in an alpine hut environment. This in copious amounts too!
Marylene provided alpine cookies
Marylene quarterbacking the kitchen
Logan had the week off from school and joined us. He had sous-chef and general helper duties assisting his Mum and Dad out whenever needed. One can all should be so lucky to have such a good-natured person around a lodge
Logan and Dan chilling