We had talked about going into Naiset Huts just over the border in British Columbia for years. We’d even booked them two years ago, but an injury meant we had to cancel that time.

When we saw free spots on the website we made a spontaneous booking. The visit was broken into four days.

Day 1

• Mount Shark Helipad to McBride’s Camp
• High -5C, Low -7C, 15 km, 392 m gain
• Through Mount Shark along the corduroy (it’s great for nordic skiing there) and along Bryant Creek to the campsite. Broke trail 300+m to the food storage area in deep sugary snow. Light snowfall overnight.

Day 2

• McBride’s Camp to Naiset Huts
• High 3C, Low -10C, 11 km, 543 m gain
• Flat valley between Mount Cautley and Mount Mercer, before rising up the elevation to Assiniboine Pass at 2,165 m. Pleasant going thanks to earlier folks who have been in/out to pack a trail.

Day 3

• Naiset Huts and surround exploring
• Morning we explored Sunburst Lake, where Lizzie Rummel lived for many years.
• Lunch and some relaxing reading and cribbage.
• We then donned the snowshoes to see sunset from Wonder Pass. Took a somewhat circuitous route up, but found the skin track on the way down.

Day 4

• Naiset Huts to Mount Shark Helipad
• High -7C, 26km, 519 m gain
• Simply retraced our steps back out.
• Sunny lunch at Bryant Creek Warden Cabin, a recognized Federal Heritage Building!

It was amazing to see so many animal footprints. All different shapes and sizes from lynx, squirrels, hares, and we think even there was a wolf or wolverine.

I found it amusing that lynx walked on the packed trail, even though their paws are designed so well for soft snow. Smart kitties!

The Naiset Huts were originally built by A.O. Wheeler, the founder of the Alpine Club of Canada, in 1925.

The nearby infamous Assiniboine Lodge was built in 1928. It is North America’s first backcountry ski lodge. The history of it is incredible, especially the folks who got it up and running, and saw the opportunities of the terrain almost 100 years ago.

As we walked in helicopters flew overhead, as many folks will chopper in and walk out, or chopper both ways.

Conditions were sparse snow. It’s not been a great year here in the Rockies and it was rotten and sugary to ground, and even then only about 1m depth. Felt more like early May than early March.

We shared the Wonder Lodge Cooking Cabin with two other parties. Everyone was friendly, respectful and pulled their weight with water and cleaning. Made for a relaxing and pleasant stay. 

As for sleeping, when we booked we were assigned the Fleabane Cabin. It could sleep eight easily so we had a lot of room! We spent most of our time in the cooking cabin however, as it was warmer.

On the way back from the traipse up to Wonder Pass at sunset my snowshoe broke. A pin snapped so we used bungee cord to wrap it and limp it back to the cabin. There we performed snowshoe surgery using wire as a temporary fix. The next day that lasted about 5km before snapping.

Another wire piece got me a couple more kilometres. Then we resorted to using the ski straps we carry. These flexible, tough, plastic straps are so good for many things, and we can add temporary snowshoe repairs to that list.

It was delightful to see a place in winter that we had seen for the first time on the Great Divide Trail in summer. I preferred it in winter as there were no mosquitoes!

It’s a special place and I can see why people have returned to it for decades. I especially enjoyed reading sections of Mount Assinboine, The Story by Chic Scott, as a copy was available to guests in the cooking cabin.

Next time it’d be great to go in on skis and do some slipping around instead of snowshoeing, but the snowshoes were a better choice for trudging training for the Great Himalaya Trail with a backpack!