Alpine Club of Canada Louise & Richard Guy Hut progress

Almost a year ago the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) announced that long time member, Richard Guy, made a significant donation towards the building of a new hut near the base of Mont des Poilus on the Bow-Yoho ski traverse.

The current ACC hut system on the Wapta Traverse gives access to amazing glaciers, high summits and fantastic powder. The most natural route across the Wapta is North-South from Peyto Lake to Wapta Lake and that route is served by four huts and is very popular in summer and winter. But there’s always been a missing piece: the route from Bow Lake to the Yoho Valley near Field, BC has always involved either a very large day between the Bow and Stanley Mitchell Huts, or a night out in a snow cave on the shoulder of Mont des Poilus. The Louise & Richard Guy Hut will fill that gap, allowing for more comfortable and safer travel on this route.

ACC staff, volunteers and professional welders and building teams have been busy this past week finalizing the steel beams, building a floor and erecting the first three walls. Walls will continue going up and the hut will be inspected later this week by a structural engineer. The walls will be followed by further exterior insulation, door and window installation and roofing and siding. Testing of the remote monitoring systems continues at the ACC National Office in Canmore. Work on the interior of the hut will continue through the fall and into the winter.