SME week 2007 – Selkirks BC

Boy this was fun going through my pictures from this April 2007 trip to Selkirk Mountain Experience (SME) with Roger and Chris. The food was amazing, and our guide dan lead us through beautiful glacier skiing all week in shin deep powder. I’m going back to SME this march with Steph and some friends. I remember being worried that April was too late to expect powder, but we were up so high in the mountains that It felt like early March back home. These weeklong guided BC ski hut weeks usually cost about $3000 including the Heli flight in, your guide and all the food. You ski 6 days and usually 4-5000′ a day minimum. Getting a week booked all to yourself for a friend’s trip is next to impossible these days. Even getting in on a 2-person reservation at these BC ski touring lodge weeks can be a luck of the draw and require years advanced booking attempts.

You fly to Kelona and get yourself to the Best Western In Revelstoke. SME picks you up in a van and takes you to the Heli pad, where you fly about 15 minutes into their lodge. There are no heli ski operations allowed near this tenure and the terrain is massive out there. There is a second smaller and more remote cabin that you may make it to in good weather. We made it there in our small group at the end of our trip with a couple in their 70’s. Rolph said “leave me here, I’ll pay whatever you want, pick me up next week”. Our guide Dan had a hard time explaining that there was no way he could be left alone anywhere in the mountains, it was a great conversation. Rolph promised he would just hang out in the hut and not even go outside. “I am home” he said. Nothing to do but stare out the window at the crevasses. He was old world European ski touring at it’s core. 

I’ve been to a few of these places. The Canadian government allowed the top mountain guides to build these operations in the most ideal settings back in the 80’s to spur economic development in BC. it worked. A few allow you to go unguided, but it doesn’t cost much less. Check out the instragram account “BACKCOUNTRYLODEGESOFBC”   www.backcountrylodgesofbc.com