Best Bets

	Best Backcountry Skiing		Hut to Hut Travel
	Most Accessible Huts		Best Hiking
	Less Crowded Options		Base for Mountaineering

This is one of the most common questions fielded by the staff at the ACC office, and the answer depends on what you want.

If you are looking for a place to spend a week, telemarking every day on challenging slopes in the best powder, the answer is the Bill Putnam (Fairy Meadow) Hut.  In 'Summits and Icefields', Chic Scott proclaims the Fairy Meadow area to be "the" backcountry ski destination in Canada.  The terrain is some of the best at any ACC hut, the snow is great, and the hut is the closest thing the ACC has to a ski lodge (check out the wood-fired sauna!). High season rates apply from late January to late April, and access is by helicopter. See the "Fairy Meadow High Season" section for more information.

If you are seeking a shorter holiday with equally great terrain and snow, then the Wheeler Hut at Rogers Pass should be your choice. The hut is just a short ski from the highway, so packing in gourmet food is an option.

The Stanley Mitchell Hut is a long way into the backcountry in winter, but if you make the journey you will be rewarded with great snow, excellent terrain and a cozy hut.

The huts on the Wapta traverse are very popular for skiers who like to bag peaks and tour across beautiful icefields (see Hut to Hut Travel below)

The Elizabeth Parker, Elk Lakes and Wates-Gibson Huts are beautiful places to tour in the winter. Good telemark runs can be found at all locations, but the slopes are not as extensive as at the above huts. The Elizabeth Parker and Elk Lakes Huts can be reached on cross country skis.

The following huts are the easiest to access:

You can drive to the Wheeler Hut at Rogers Pass in the summer. The hiking in the area is spectacular, with most trails involving significant elevation gain. In winter, getting to the hut involves skiing along a road for 1.5 km. Getting to the hut in the winter is easy and safe from avalanches, but venturing anywhere beyond the hut requires significant avalanche training and experience.

The Elk Lakes Cabin in Elk Lakes Provincial Park is also accessible by car in the summer months. Getting there involves driving on a logging road for 70 km, so you may decide to opt for one of the other easy access options. From Kananaskis, you can hike or bike 10 km along a cut-line in summer months. This cut-line is also used for the winter ski access, which can be done on cross country skis.

In summer, the Elizabeth Parker Hut at Lake O’Hara is a mere 15-minute hike from the fire road where the Parks Canada bus drops you and your pack off. The hiking terrain is unparalleled in the Rockies, but don't expect to enjoy it alone in the summer. In the winter, access involves skiing 11 km along the fire road, followed by a short steeper jaunt up and over a treed hill. The road is frequently (but not always) track set, and can be done on cross country skis.

The Stanley Mitchell Hut takes about three to four hours to hike to in the summer and is a perfect place for a family trip. The trails in the area are fabulous, and the meadow in front of the hut is popular with children. Getting to the Stanley Mitchell Hut in the winter is a serious undertaking, and is only for experienced ski mountaineers.

If access to a hut is not your first concern, and you'd like to get away from it all, you may want to check out the Wates-Gibson Hut, the Fryatt Hut or the two huts in the northern Selkirks, the Bill Putnam (Fairy Meadow) Hut and Great Cairn.

The approach to the Fryatt and Wates-Gibson huts are fairly long (about 20km), but straightforward. It would be a rare day to find a crowded hut at either location!

A party that booked the Bill Putnam (Fairy Meadow) Hut for Thanksgiving one year commented that they were amazed that in a population area of about five million people within a three hour drive, they were the only four who wanted to be in the hut. This is common in the summer months; the Bill Putnam (Fairy Meadow) Hut is definitely one of the best kept secrets in the area.

Look up the word "remote" in the dictionary, and you'll find a picture of the Great Cairn Hut. A trip to this hut seldom puts you in contact with other human beings. A one day access is possible, but most parties approach the hut from Fairy Meadow. Access to this hut involves serious glacier travel.

The ACC huts are primarily in locations which service a specific area; they are not often linked in hut to hut trips. The exception to this, of course, is the system of huts on the Wapta Icefields, Canada's "Haute Route." The Whyte (Peyto), Bow, Balfour and Scott Duncan huts are all within about 20 km of each other, and can be linked by standard routes. For a different traverse, the Stanley Mitchell hut can also be reached from Bow or Peyto huts, usually via an overnight on the icefield. Trips between all of these huts involve serious glacier travel.

The Neil Colgan Hut is often accessed via the Fay Hut. During the summer, the Abbot Pass hut can be accessed in a day from the road, or after staying at the Elizabeth Parker Hut.

Best Hiking

For hiking opportunities, the best bets are the Elizabeth Parker, Stanley Mitchell, Wheeler, Wates-Gibson, Fryatt, and Fay huts. The first three huts are relatively easy to get to (see "Most Accessible Huts" below), and have endless hiking opportunities. Wates-Gibson and Fryatt take a little longer and require more route finding skills, but are in beautiful locations with excellent hiking opportunities. The Fay hut is often used as a destination in itself.

Base for Mountaineering

Alpine climbing is done from all of the ACC huts; these are the best, and most popular.

If you are looking to base yourself at a hut and do some climbs, you have a good selection. The Bow Hut is a popular base for mountaineering in the summer time, as are the Neil Colgan and Stanley Mitchell huts. These huts give access to excellent moderate terrain. The all-time classic alpine climbing hut is the Abbot Pass Hut.

Intermediate mountaineering objectives are found at the Wheeler Hut in Rogers Pass, the Fryatt Hut, the Conrad Kain Hut, the Great Cairn Hut, the Bill Putnam (Fairy Meadow) Hut, Mt Colin, Castle Mtn, and the Wates-Gibson Hut. Harder and easier objectives are available as well, but the best routes are somewhere in between.

Downright hard alpine routes are found in the vicinity of the Lloyd MacKay Hut and the Conrad Kain Hut

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