The Evolution of Energy Usage at ACC Backcountry Huts
by Tom Fransham and Keith Haberl
Energy use at Alpine Club of Canada huts has changed greatly in the past century. The first mountain huts in Canada, early in the twentieth century, were simple structures built from local logs or stone and intended for basic shelter from the elements. Energy usage would have amounted to burning locally gathered firewood. More than a century later, energy demand at the huts is higher, operation is rooted in values of conservation, and we’re in the early stages of a move to renewable energy. For all these reasons, it’s worth charting the evolution of hut energy needs and the factors that have affected these changes throughout the years.
Solar panels at Shadow Lake Lodge. Photo: Peter Hoang
“A hundred years ago, firewood was the only practical fuel in the backcountry.”
USING MORE ENERGY
The most obvious energy requirements at a hut are what’s needed for heating, cooking, and lighting. But in recent years, that’s grown to also include ventilation, electronic device charging, and even communications at some huts. Another major consideration is the energy required for the transportation of that energy (think helicopter loads of firewood and propane tanks). Add increasingly year-round recreation and the multiplication of users, and it all points to the largest trend in the past century being the increase in the amount of energy used at huts.
A hundred years ago, firewood was the only practical fuel in the backcountry. The increased availability of propane led to the retrofitting of huts in the 1980s, although firewood remains prevalent for heating. New huts, particularly ones located on glaciers, or in the high alpine, were designed with propane in mind for cooking, lighting, and sometimes heating.
More users in the backcountry always means more human waste (poo). The original backcountry hut solution was a pit toilet in the forest that could be covered over and relocated when it filled up. The energy cost of this system was close to zero. Beginning in the 1980s, a change to a fly-out barrel system contributed greatly to the total energy usage of the hut system.
A few huts include new conveniences such as emergency communications (where there are live-in custodians), ventilation, and USB power outlets to charge personal devices. These are powered by renewable energy generated on site, but they contribute to the overall increase in energy used.
CLUB VALUES AND CONSERVATION
The ACC is a member-driven organization with strong environmental protection and stewardship values, and the operation of the backcountry hut system – a major part of the finances and identity of the club – is bound to reflect those values.
New solar panels on The Alpine Club of Canada’s Bow Hut at the Wapta Icefields. 2024. Photo: Peter Hoang
Also, the huts themselves are often positioned in alpine areas that have a front row seat to the drastic changes of shrinking glaciers, extreme weather events, and other effects of climate change. The Abbot Pass Hut, in one very prominent example, was witness to the disappearing ice of the lower Victoria Glacier for years before itself being removed in 2022, as the ground under its foundation began sliding away.
Counterintuitively, some conservation priorities of leaving a smaller footprint increased energy usage. As hut visitation increased, the availability of locally gathered firewood decreased, and as most ACC huts are in national or provincial parks, firewood had to be brought to the hut, including by helicopter.
Likewise, the push to manage human waste properly, rather than burying it in the ground, arose from a concern for the state of the water, both locally and downstream. Waste is now flown out in barrels by helicopters, which is a far more responsible practice, but the increased energy usage must be acknowledged.
New hut construction, informed by modern, high-efficient building techniques, utilized insulated panels, which greatly reduced draftiness compared to log cabins. But as these new structures were often situated on glaciers or were used heavily in winter (think Bow Hut), the lack of a hut “breathing” led to problems with humidity and mold. Recent renovations at Bow Hut included not only the replacement of the vestibule walls ravaged by high humidity, but also the installation of duct work and heat recovery ventilators to help mitigate the dampness.
These initiatives were all rooted in the desire to leave a smaller footprint, but in different ways contributed to increases in energy usage.
Wind turbines on the Louise and Richard Guy Hut on the Wapta Icefields. Photo: Tom Fransham
MOVE TO RENEWABLE ENERGY
Conserving and finding lower-emission energy alternatives and generally leaving a smaller footprint on the alpine environment – while a daunting task for thirty-two backcountry huts across several mountain ranges – is an ACC priority.
Presently, five ACC facilities are producing a portion or all of their power from renewable sources. The Conrad Kain Hut in the Bugaboos generates electricity from both solar and micro hydro sources, which power the club’s largest hut’s lights, kitchen stoves, and communications. On the Wapta Icefield, the Bow Hut’s lights and ventilation systems are powered by solar power, which will be supplemented by a wind turbine in fall 2024. To the west, along the Bow-Yoho Traverse, the Louise and Richard Guy Hut also utilizes solar and wind power for lights and ventilation, and has done so since the hut was built in 2015. The club’s Shadow Lake Lodge in Banff National Park has the most solar panels of any ACC facility, which generate nearly all of the power used at this full-service backcountry lodge, including lighting, cooking, and significant refrigeration. And in the Kootenays, the Kokanee Glacier Cabin runs lighting, communications, and cooking from electricity generated at a micro hydro installation in a nearby creek.
The ACC facilities maintenance team installs a wind turbine to the barrel room of the Bow Hut, September, 2024. Photo: Pete Hoang.
In the coming months, solar power will be installed at both the Cameron Lake Cabin (fall 2024) and the replacement Castle Mountain Hut (spring 2025). A hybrid solar and micro hydro system is planned for the Fairy Meadow Hut in the Selkirks, and additional solar capacity will be added to the Shadow Lake Lodge system. The ACC will continue renewable power projects at the most popular huts, with installations at the Elizabeth Parker Hut at Lake O’Hara, A.O. Wheeler Hut in Rogers Pass, and the Elk Lakes Cabin in the planning stages.
Beyond powering more huts with renewable energy, the club, along with BC Parks, is exploring the use of urine diversion and composting toilet technologies to reduce the number of helicopter flights required to remove human waste. Urine diversion requires thawed ground and composting requires actual warmth, so alpine environments and year-round hut use present challenges here, but the possibility of adding solar power into the mix is being explored and may have some promise.
Over the course of the past century, backcountry huts have become more comfortable, convenient, and safe, but they also use more energy. Guided by the club’s value of being stewards of the alpine environment, the challenge in the coming years will be to continue to find ways to reduce energy usage and minimize our impact on all the places we operate.
ACC Capital Projects Manager, Tom Fransham is an engineer, mountaineer, mountain bike coach, and volunteer trip leader with a passion for planning sustainability infrastructure. Keith Haberl works in the ACC’s national office in Canmore as the club’s Director of Marketing and Communications. In the 1990s, he wrote a guidebook to the club’s backcountry huts.