Changes ongoing at Athabasca Hostel

Tucked in the woods just south of the Athabasca Falls on the Icefields Parkway, stand the cabins of Hosteling International’s Athabasca Hostel.

Sleeping 38 people across three cabins, the Athabasca Hostel is a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Jasper.  An almost completely self-sustaining compound and depending on water that you pump by hand from an underground well, this is a place for people looking for a wilderness adventure with the comfort of home.  

Sasha Viminitz, the hostel’s manager since last March, has been busy improving the facilities.  “It was a cabin that was really built for summer use,” he said.  Viminitz has added insulation to the floors of all the cabins making this an “accessible” destination for those who don’t consider themselves hard-core outdoors people.  “I want the place to be warm and comfortable for anybody,” he said.

Viminitz has also added ceiling fans to move the heat around, so it’s not 30C at your head and 10C at your toes, he said. Technological improvements have also made the changes he envisions a realistic possibility, such as the addition of LED lighting outside.  

Eschewing the label of ‘hostel manager’, Viminitz prefers being called a ‘house parent’, a throwback to 1970s hostel managers.  Wanting to create “a real sense of home,” Viminitz and his partner/girlfriend, Christie, enjoy the fact that they can really “host” people, unlike in the larger more hotel-like hostels.  

A back deck, where “people can eat outside and enjoy” the surroundings is also on tap to be built in the spring, as is the creation of a volleyball court, he said.  As far as the sleeping cabins go, Viminitz really wants to “create a little seating area with a lamp and a nice comfy chair and a carpet in one corner... so that people who want to have a little down time... have a place to retreat, chill out and do their thing.” 

Viminitz would also like to attract more large groups out to the hostel given that’s it an affordable location, costing around $400 to rent the whole place for the night.  Some groups have already taken advantage of this opportunity.  “We’re pretty tight with the Patricia Street Deli,” he said.  “Their crew has had their staff parties out here.”

When asked if he and Christie are ever lonely all the way out there, he asked if I had ever seen The Shining, a film about an author who goes insane and tries to kill his wife after taking up residence in an isolated hotel for the winter.  Even if loneliness is an issue though, there are a few resident black bears, George, Britney (for the pop star) and her child Jaden, to keep them company.