Historic Abbot Pass hut gone after nearly 100 years

The storied stone hut at Abbot Pass was built by Swiss mountain guides brought in by the CPR to help build tourism in the Canadian Rockies.

Completed in 1922, using stone from Mts Leroy and Victoria, the rest of the materials were hauled up the Victoria glacier above Lake Louise by horses and backpack through a feature later known as the 'Death Trap.'

"It was a really unique building in a really dramatic place," says Keith Haberl with the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC).

The ACC operated the hut since the 1980s.

Sitting at 2,926 metres elevation, the sturdy building served as an overnight stop for mountaineers and adventurous hikers for nearly a century. But in 2016, a hut custodian noticed the slope was giving way beneath one corner of the building, cracking the foundation.

"Because of climate change there was some melt into the permafrost and the structure – the slope slid and the structure was permanently affected," says Francois Masse, superintendent, Lake Louise-Yoho Kootenay Field Unit, Parks Canada.

After attempts to stabilize the slope failed, a difficult decision was made to dismantle the hut.

"It's heartbreaking. There’s a lot of people who use the hut and a lot people who wanted to," Haberl said.

For crews tasked with dismantling the structure, it was an emotional job.

"It was really important to me culturally and historically that the whole crew actually knew what this was all about," says Sean Alexander of Tangiers Mountain Construction.

"The grandness and the sadness of what we were doing."

Alexander, who led the work, says when the crew first arrived the crew took some time to start the job.

"We started the fire for the last time and we had a really intellectual discussion of what we were just about to do, and the gravity of the whole situation.”

As work went on the crew started finding little treasures hidden in the walls and floorboards.

"One of my favourites was like what I think was an original walking stick that we found under the floor, completely preserved, as was most of the wood," Alexander says. "(Also) some very unique coins that were slipped in purposely, I believe in between the wood."

Parks Canada now has all of the historically significant items and is working on how best to share them.

At the pass, one wall of the hut was left along with a plaque.

The area has been closed to the public since 2021.