Asulkan Cabin

Last weekend was the third annual November 11th trip to the Asulkan Cabin. This year there wasn't space available in the cabin on Saturday so we spent Saturday night at the Wheeler Hut and then skied up to the Asulkan on Sunday morning.

The Wheeler Hut is fully 1km from the road so it's very important to pack the necessary supplies with you.



We arrived to find the hut overrun with 4 families from Canmore with a total of 9 children. Thankfully it's a big hut. Both the parents and the kids were a lot of fun though. We got cake.

The highlight of the evening came when all of the kids were lining up at the door to go to the outhouse. They were all a little nervous of the dark and must have figured that there was safety in numbers. We overheard one little girl whisper advice to a sibling...

"Don't be the first one out and don't be the last one back".

Smart kid. Here are Brenda and Steve at the Wheeler...





The Asulkan hut is equipped with propane for lighting, heating, and cooking. It's pretty swank -- when there's propane. A couple of years ago we were at the hut when the propane ran out. It got a little miserable in the dark and cold with nothing to eat and nothing to drink. This time we'd been warned in advance that there was no propane so we packed fuel, stoves, candles, and warm sleeping bags. In the end there was propane and only the furnace didn't work. Oh well.



It's always windy at the Asulkan but this weekend took the cake. It was seriously, seriously windy. The hut, built with enormous 18" beams, actually shuddered on it's foundations. It was like experiencing airplane turbulence. Everything just kind of shakes and then you give your neighbour a little nervous smile. When we got home we learned that there had been power failures over much of southern BC.

Other than that it was yer typical weekend at the hut -- clagged in, tons of snow, and a bit of decent skiing.

Here's a video of the stormy weather (the audio is worth hearing).