Golden Alpine Holiday’s Meadow Lodge

Meadow Lodge is located at the headwaters of Carrol Creek, nestled under the northern flanks of Cupola Mountain (2632m and the highest peak in the Esplanades) near a small lake. At 7,200ft / 2,200m Meadow is one of the highest alpine lodges in Canada and the highest of the four GAH lodges so plentiful snow is typically a given. Golden Alpine Holidays is surrounded by two national parks and some of Canada’s highest mountains, namely Mt. Sir Sandford (11,545ft / 3519m the highest mountain in the Selkirk Range) and Mount Columbia (12,293ft / 3,747m).

Meadow Lodge is accessed by helicopter which stages out of a base just off the Trans Canada Highway roughly 40 minutes West of Golden BC. A Bell 212 Helicopter swiftly transports you to the lodge and along the way provides good views of Meadow’s tenure and most of the 32 named runs contained within it. Once at the lodge you’ll find the main building as well as a sauna and two outhouses. There is no running water at Meadow Lodge, all of the water required for drinking, cleaning and sauna use has to be hauled up from a nearby stream.

The main source of heat in the lodge is a large efficient wood stove which is kept burning day and night and more than adequately heats both levels of the lodge. Propane lights keep things lit up at night as there is no electricity other than what is provided by the generator which is powered up every other night for a few hours. This provides enough juice to charge your electronic devices and ensure the custodian has enough energy for communication with Golden Alpine Holiday's base in Golden via a repeater found at the summit of Cupola Mountain.

The kitchen is well stocked albeit small in size for the number of guests and is joined to an open concept main living area with several large windows which let in much-needed light and inspiring views. There is a large propane heated boot room located inside the front door of the lodge which is ideal for drying your gear after a long day of skiing, this is also where you will store most of your perishable food as it is cooler on the floor and safe from freezing. There is also an unpowered refrigerator outside that will keep frozen food from thawing and safe from the resident Martin. Off of the boot room, there is a single bedroom and just inside the main entrance is the custodian and staff quarters which is where the cook and guide would stay should you be lucky enough. A fixed wooden ladder is used to get upstairs where you will find six bedrooms, each with two beds sleeping one person each except for two rooms that sleep three each. The rooms are large with adequate space for hanging clothes and shelves for storing gear along with large windows for light and more views of the surrounding terrain.

Ask anyone what Meadow Lodge is known for and they will tell you it’s the steep pillow lines literally right out the front door of the Lodge. But Meadow has so much more terrain to offer as well. There are 2,000ft long south-facing runs such as Billy The Kid, plenty of high alpine terrain as well as extensive west-facing tree skiing off Paradise Ridge. If you are lucky enough to have good weather and stable snow conditions then the summit of Cupola Mountain is within easy reach, here you get not only amazing views of the surrounding mountains like Mount Sir Sandford, Iconoclast Mountain and Mount Columbia—but you can also ski the longest line in the tenure, ‘Peak to Creek’ which drops 3,600ft / 1,110m to the valley bottom. Just be sure to have enough gas in the tank to get back to the lodge as it’s a long, long slog.

Meadow and all of the other lodges in Golden Alpine Holiday operation are also open in summer for hiking, mountaineering, retreats, artistic pursuits and flora/fauna viewings. Having visited in winter I’d now like to return in summer to experience all of the alpine terrain by hiking from lodge to lodge which is an option that GAH provides. 

Water  Carried from a stream at the south of the lodge.
Bathrooms - Two outhouses.
Heat - Wood & propane.
Power source - Solar, generator and propane lights.
Lodge - 2 story wood frame with separate sauna building.

Meadow is a comfortable Lodge with most of the amenities you’d want, although the common area and kitchen are on the smallish side for 15 people (14 guests plus one custodian) it works and you get used to being cozy with everyone. If you need some reprieve you can always retreat to your bedroom upstairs as they are all spacious and each has a large window to let in natural light.

There is also a nice hot Sauna a short walk from the lodge to finish off each ski day but the absence of a bucket shower and a private area inside the sauna building to change and bathe is sorely missed.

With no wifi and electricity only generated every other day, Meadow Lodge has a welcome rustic appeal that suits its mountainous environment. The propane lighting and the fact that all water has to be hauled up from the creek located below the lodge further enhance this ambience. Although some may miss the luxury of these amenities being less labour intensive as they are typically standard with most, if not all other backcountry lodges. This is in part is why Meadow Lodge is such a great deal financially, that and the fact that there are economies of scale at play when you run four lodges located so close together with one single staging area for transfers. While this reduces guest costs it also provides some other logistical challenges, however, like adequate parking for the 70 plus guests and multiple staff transferring each weekend. Parking at the staging area comes at a premium, to say the least.

We didn’t arrive at Meadow Lodge until 2:30 in the afternoon the day we flew in and due to the limited daylight in early January, we only had time for some quick transceiver search and avalanche scenario practice. It was the same situation on transfer day at the end of our week, we flew out at 1:30 and while skiing was an option after cleaning duties were completed it was frowned upon due to the limited time available. 

One other oddity to make note of, when you book a week at Meadow Lodge is that your group is responsible to feed the custodian all of their meals over the week. This is something I have never encountered before at other backcountry lodges and it struck me as an odd requirement. Since the custodian’s sleeping quarters are in the lodge with you they do become part of the group and our custodian was a top-notch guy so we had no problem feeding him and providing the odd adult beverage as well. Having to feed the custodian just means you need to bring more food over the week, however, it is a risky proposition for the custodian as they may not like the meals you prepare or have other dietary restrictions or requirements. It is a unique situation and one to be aware of though.

Logistics and lodge issues aside, Meadow Lodge is a wonderful place to spend a week, I only gripe because I have been to over a dozen backcountry lodges to date and you get used to certain amenities, but these do come at a price.

The lodge itself is ideally situated in a large valley which provides many options for alpine and below treeline skiing on all aspects. We covered a lot of ground in our week at Meadow and skied the best lines on offer as well as summited Cupola Mountain to take in the surrounding views. With a total of 90cm of light cold smoke powder falling over the week we were blessed with incredible skiing literally out the front door of the lodge. With temps hovering around -20°C each day the snow persevered well from day to day and refreshes were an often occurrence with 10cm falling on Sunday, 21cm on Monday, 15cm on Tuesday, 31cm on Friday and 12cm on Saturday. Our only clear day was Wednesday when we skied off the summit of Cupola Mountain and took in the sunshine on the sunny side of Paradise Ridge.

Our other go-to lines were ‘Thirty Below’ and ‘Billy the Kid’ which are south-facing slopes located down valley of the lodge. Both of these runs had the perfect fall line pitch spread out over 1,400 and 2,000ft of vertical respectively. Each of these were skied repeated over several days as they provided some of the longest and most sustained tree line skiing in Meadow’s tenure. In addition to these two lines 'Jalibi' was a rewarding alpine line on days with good stability. It runs right into 'Back Door' which in total provided a long 1,700ft shot. 'Back Door' can also be skied directly from the lodge with only a short skin required. If pressed for time or simply addicted to pillow lines then the most skied line for our group had to be ‘Front Door’, aptly named as it is located a quick 100m slide from the front door of Meadow Lodge. While only 600ft of vertical, there are multiple lines to be skied—several of which had numerous pillows of all sizes to be linked up and enjoyed. This is a steep pitch so stability again was a factor but due to skier compaction and wise terrain selection our group managed to make easy work of this slope.

With more than enough terrain to keep any skier happy over the week and typically abundant snowfall, Meadow Lodge is one hell of a good place to book for a backcountry ski adventure. The price is right and you get great value for your money as long as you can make due with a few customary amenities not being included.