Art Twomey in the Purcells 1995. Photo: Roy Moe
Our land. Our lodge. Our legend.
Boulder Hut Adventures’ founders Art Twomey and Margie Jamieson are legends in British Columbia backcountry skiing and environmental circles.
Art Twomey, photographer, filmmaker, mountaineer, geologist. Photo: Tad Nichols
In 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War era, Art moved from the US to the East Kootenays and ventured into the Purcells to homestead, building the Ptarmigan Lodge with friends and exploring the terrain in winter in the age of wooden cross country skis and rudimentary telemark technique.
According to his friend Pat Bates, Art was an accomplished photographer, filmmaker, mountaineer and glacial geologist. As an early member of the Canadian Avalanche Association, He was instrumental in instituting the CAA avalanche courses, which he instructed for 15 years. He was a regular contributor to many major international outdoor publications and used his skills to promote environmental causes including contributing his photographs to Exploring the Purcell Wilderness and films made to raise awareness of the importance of protecting wild places in the Purcells.
Art was a member of New Zealand expeditions to Peru and Everest. Photo: Colin Monteath
Art meets Margie
In 1977, shortly returning from the New Zealand Everest expedition (which Art once characterized as the least funded, non-supported attempt at Everest to date) at the age of 33, Art met Margie Jamieson who had just moved to Kimberley.
According to writer Jeff Pew, prior to meeting him, Margie had some misconceptions about Art: “I thought he was an 80 year-old trapper living in the St. Mary’s Mountain.” Soon, she fell in love with the man who grew up singing folk songs and opera, held a Masters of Glaciology, and, “possessed a charisma that commanded people’s attention.”
We thought we should share it
Margie moved into his Ptarmigan cabin in the Purcell Mountains, ten miles from any road access, where, she said, “everything just fell into place.” With friends, they built Boulder Hut, higher up in the valley and closer to more varied ski terrain, in 1984.
“It was a place so beautiful, we thought we should share it,” Margie recalls, describing the origins of the Boulder Hut.
Art and Margie then spent summers building cabins, hiking in supplies, and occasionally, “running across scree and picking up supplies, parachuted by a fixed-wing plane. It was a lot of sweat equity and a whole lot of help from friends,” she says. Together, they developed a reputation for providing and exceptional and authentic backcountry skiing experience. In the early days, clients skied 10 miles from the nearest road to get to the lodge.
Art and Margie share a kiss
For the next twenty years, Art and Margie ran Ptarmigan Tours, where an intimate clientele followed them on their globetrotting adventures. In the skiing off-season, they took clients glacier skiing and mountain biking in New Zealand, sea kayaking in Fiji and Chile, on game-viewing safaris in Ghana, hiking through slot canyons in the American Southwest, and on horse-supported hiking traverses of the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy.
As pioneers in wilderness and wildlife protection, Art and Margie led the successful campaign that established the St. Mary's Alpine Park, the 1,990-hectare Purcell Wilderness Conservancy, and protection for the Purcell mountain caribou herd.
In January 1997, at the age of 52, Art died in a helicopter crash. He and his friend, pilot Jorg Marquari, owner of Mountain High Helicopters, were flying a small group into the lodge over Boulder Pass in bad weather. There were no survivors.
Today
Margie sold Boulder Hut to its current owners, the Yancey family, in 2005. Mark and Sarah Yancey are committed to preserving Boulder Hut’s historic role in British Columbia’s rich history of backcountry lodges. Life at Boulder Hut today is nearly as simple as when Margie and Art founded the operation – and this is by choice.
Mark and Sarah Yancey and their children Grace and Alden continue the tradition.
Lodge guests sill unplug, forgoing television, internet access, and cell phones for a week. Wood heat, propane cooking, electric light powered by a micro-hydro system and a sauna add simple comforts.
Sarah says, “We strongly believe in maintaining our old school roots while staying current to the interest in more aggressive backcountry skiing and ski touring. For the purist at heart, we offer a down-to-earth, no frills backcountry skiing experience.”
Mark adds, “Following in the footsteps of Art Twomey and Margie Jamieson, Sarah and I are caretakers of a long-standing tradition at Boulder Creek. We feel humbled by this responsibility.”
Their legacy lives on
Based at her ranch near the Purcells Margie continues to travel the world and is dedicated to environmental causes, continuing to serve with Wildsight, the conservation and environmental organization she helped found.
And Art’s legacy continues. In 2018 his friends and fellow explorers Pat Morrow and Jeremy Schmidt published Searching for Tao Canyon. As Schmidt explains, “More than 40 years ago, Art Twomey, Pat Morrow and I started a decades-long exploration of slot canyons in the southwest. We had a photographic adventure book in mind, and came close to publishing it several times in various forms with different publishers but never quite got it done. The loss of Art 20 years ago took the wind out of things. Now, finally, we have brought it to completion . . . What a pleasure it is to bring this long-nurtured baby into the light!”
Searching for Tao Canyon is dedicated to Art Twomey.
Read Chic Scott’s account of the founding of Boulder Hut in Powder Pioneers
View 1973 interview with Art Twomey about his advocacy for wild places in British Columbia