MOUNT ROBSON PROVINCIAL PARK – More than two decades in the making, the time has come for shovels to hit the ground in building a two-story, modern alpine hut.
The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) will build its first hut in a decade, just beyond Berg Lake Campground in Mount Robson Provincial Park.
With space for 12 people, the hut will be 24 kilometres from the Mount Robson Provincial Park information centre and fulfill a long-time need for a backcountry hut in the area.
“[This hut] is a major construction project. We haven’t done this since 2015,” said Keith Haberl, director of communications and marketing for the ACC.
The Louise and Richard Guy Hut on the Wapta Icefield was the last construction project taken on by the ACC.
Plans for the Robson Pass hut began in the early 2000s but lost steam without enough people or funding on board.
Dusted off around 2015, further delays came to the project due to the COVID-19 pandemic and major flood damage to the park in 2021.
The floods caused extensive damage throughout the provincial park after a heat wave caused snow and ice to melt faster than normal, leading water to come down the mountain and destroying key infrastructure. Earlier in March, BC Parks announced the popular Berg Lake Trail will fully reopen this year.
As trails and bridges have been rebuilt, the ACC decided the time had come for the $1.2 million project to move ahead.
Working with BC Parks, the ACC has completed environmental assessments and site surveys, while First Nations consultations remain in progress. With construction underway in a few months, the ACC hopes that the hut will be ready to welcome guests come summer 2026.
Haberl said it’s not often the club builds new huts.
“They are a big deal to build for a few reasons,” he said.
Navigating the jurisdictional differences of national and provincial parks, acquiring funding and the logistics of construction in complex terrain are a few of the hurdles that come with a project of this magnitude.
Among many other factors such as water access and terrain threats, the need for more backcountry accommodations in the well-used area of the pass made this site a suitable choice.
“Mount Robson Provincial Park had identified a need for roofed accommodation,” said Haberl.
The hut will be the 34th addition to the ACC’s network. The organization also has huts such as the Neil Colgan Hut in Banff National Park, Elizabeth Parker Hut in Lake O’Hara in Yoho National Park and Peter and Catharine Whyte (Peyto) Hut at the Wapta Icefield.
The area also holds historical significance for the ACC as the club’s exploratory summer camp led to the first ascent of Mount Robson – the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies – in 1913.
“The ACC’s commitment to climb Mount Robson and the story of the mountain’s eventual first ascent would become one of the great tales of Canadian mountaineering,” said well-known mountaineering historian Chic Scott in a release on the ACC’s website.
A third of the project has been fundraised as the ACC is looking to donors and community members for help funding the project.
“The club is proceeding and we’re proceeding on a little bit of faith. … It’s a big build,” says Haberl.
Haberl said the hut will have two names: The Robson Pass and Byron Caldwell Hut.
The latter honours ACC member Byron Caldwell, who died in a mountaineering accident in 2018 in Kananaskis Country.
Caldwell’s family made a generous donation during the 20-year process of bringing the hut to life.
“[He] had a very positive experience in the Mount Robson area at one of our camps in 1988. It was very, very dear to him,” said Haberl of naming the hut after Caldwell.
“They’ve been very committed and very dedicated to the project,” he said.
