Backcountry Odyssey

With ice-climbing, snowshoeing and skiing on offer, Banff’s backcountry is a wonderland for the adventurous

- Ellie Ross

A brisk wind buffets my cheeks and my fingers are numb in my mittens. Through the snow and my fogged-up sunglasses, I try to see the route ahead. “This is what you call navigating a ping pong ball,” my guide, Matt Patterson, says with a smile, before heading into the white.

Breathing hard, it’s taking everything I’ve got to slide one skin-covered ski in front of the other as I climb the aptly named Deception Pass. This 500ft ascent reaches an altitude of 8,150ft, taking you beyond the treeline and deep into the heart of BanffNational Park.

I’m just over halfway through the seven-mile journey from the bustling ski resort of Lake Louise to Skoki Lodge, a rustic and remote cabin hidden amidst the mountain ridges and alpine lakes of the Rockies. Built by an intrepid group of skiers from local timber, the lodge is only accessible to guests by hiking in summer, or skiing or snowshoeing in winter.

Just like when it opened as Canada’s first commercial ski lodge in 1931, there’s no running water or electricity, and outhouse privies only. And yet despite — or perhaps because of — Skoki’s simplicity and solitude, it has attracted its fair share of escapists; from Lady Jean Rankin, lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother, who was the first paying guest, to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who snuck away here on their honeymoon in 2011.

The trail begins at Temple Lodge, where Matt and I slide off the groomed piste and past a small sign marked ‘To Skoki’. A bygone world of kerosene lamps and no wi-fi awaits. With everything we need for two days on our backs we set off, zipping our jackets up against the sub-zero temperatures.