Boulder Hut Adventures is happy to report there is already a 2 metre snow pack waiting for us! This La Nina season is quickly shaping up to resemble the epic powder months of last year. We are your original hut based, authentic source of backcountry skiing adventure. You owe to yourself – come ski with us! La Nina doesn’t come around every year – but she is staying with us in British Columbia and we are pleased to have her as our guest. Don’t miss out! Contact us today for more details and scheduling information.

Women’s Week Debuts at the Boulder Hut

Well we finally got it all sewn up. Working with ACMG Guide Anne Keller, we successfully got the first all women’s week filled up at the Boulder Hut.
Anne has worked hard to get this week going and she will be sure to give the gals a great week of skiing. Anne has been to the Boulder Hut before, so she has seen and skied some of the secrets we have here. I tried to get her to hire me as her assistant. Ya know, wear a wig and maybe something in teal, but she wouldn’t have any of it. She’s bringing in her assistant Emily to fill my spot. Bummer. It was going to be a lot of work helping to guide a group of 12 fit mountain woman, but I was willing to take on the task. “Slap” says Sarah. She said if anyone is going out with them, it will be her!
It promises to be a great week, and I look forward to having Anne bring guests in the future. Hopefully we can make this a yearly event!
Looking forward to meeting everyone on this week. See you soon!

From Owner/Operator – Mark Yancey
The Joy of Powder Skiing

Am I getting older? Do I have a new sense of mortality? Is my life too simple? Am I not serious enough? It could be any number of things I suppose, but I am not going “Extreme”.
Seems like everywhere I turn, I see some angle of extreme. Extreme marathons, extreme bike races, extreme swimming, extreme lunar orbiting, extreme squirrel hunting…Extreme skiing. What next? Noting the tragedy of the first North American avalanche fatality this 2011-2012 winter, I reflect on what got me into this business in the first place. After surviving some pretty stupid ski objectives without any knowledge of my surroundings followed by a fifteen year ski patrolling career, I pursued the ski guiding stream. I then found out how much I didn’t know. My continuing education from avalanche and guides courses as well as extensive time in the field have brought me to a new place of harmony.
I enjoy skiing: face shots, reading the terrain, sensing a suspicious snowpack, the curiosity of whether a particular line goes, smooth silky turns on a cold afternoon in the shade: all of it. I really enjoy the ski touring flavour of skiing. Earning my turns, full lungs, burning legs, conversation on the uphill, powder pig behaviour on the downhill. Powder,powder, powder! Skiing is fun.
Now, put that fun in an environment where you have jagged 9000’ peaks surrounding you and sculpted smooth moraine covered in vanilla ice cream with just one, OK maybe two sets of tracks down it. Blue sky and cold days with shadows making pictures on the complex terrain. No one else. You might feel like you are one of those extreme skiers skiing down a 60 degree, 2 meter wide couloir, making two, maybe three turns. You really get the sense of being IN the mountains.
As for those folks committing to serious extreme lines, most of them are great athletes with a lot of time and experience skiing objectives like those. It takes a master at his/her craft to attempt, let alone succeed on some of the descents performed these days. There is something rewarding about skiing challenging terrain. I still like to get my heart pumping by taking some educated risk. But whatever it is, age, mortality, I have turned to quality. Snow quality. Ski partner quality. Quality of conversation. Guiding quality. Ski quality.

For me, I’ll forever enjoy noodling down 35 degrees for 1500 feet making what I believe to be the nicest turns I made all season. I could do that over and over again.
It’s a pretty cool thing we do. Ski.  Here’s to a great, safe ski season for all.  May you be blessed with an abundance of snow in the face, while still on your skis, of course?  All the best during the Holidays!
Mark Yancey, Owner/Operator Boulder Hut Adventures