The Maligne Lake Ski Club has asked Parks Canada to keep Shangrila open during the summer season.
The club was forced to shutter the historic backcountry cabin for most of this year’s ski season, after Parks closed large swaths of the Maligne Valley to help protect its struggling caribou herd.
The result was months of cancelled reservations to the cabin and the loss of significant revenue for the non-profit ski club.
Shangrila was built by legendary Jasperites Curly Phillips and Doug and Willard Jeffery and opened in 1936. The Maligne Lake Ski Club operates the cabin, and allows users to stay there if they make a donation to the club. Those donations are used to run, supply and maintain the cabin.
According to the ski club’s vice president, Sandy Cox, delayed public access to the Maligne Valley means the club won’t bring in enough money to keep the cabin operational.
The club’s solution to the problem, as outlined in a proposal it submitted to Parks Feb. 20, is to shift its season, opening the cabin after delayed winter access is lifted in March, and reopening again during the summer.
In the proposal, the club asks for a season spanning from March 1 to April 30 (with the late April dates being subject to snow conditions) and July 1 to Oct. 15.
In the winter, members access the cabin by skiing up Jeffery Creek. Since that won’t be possible in the summer, the proposal asks that Parks allow the creation of a route branching off the Skyline Trail to the cabin for the summer season.
The cabin would operate in the same manner as it has in the past, with no more than six people allowed to stay at a time, and the club would initiate a yearly stewardship initiative to help maintain the Skyline Trail in the Snowbowl area.
There is no mention of increased fees in the proposal.
Cox said that the objective of the club has always been to foster an appreciation for Jasper’s backcountry. By opening the cabin in the summer, the club will bring in enough donations to stay afloat, and people will still have a chance to experience the Snowbowl area.
“Shangrila is a great way to experience the backcountry, and we want to keep that as an option for people,” Cox said. “It’s beautiful up there in the summer, too. I’ve gone up to do maintenance, and walking into Snowbowl during the summer—when everything is in bloom—is quite something.”
The club’s proposal echoes these sentiments. It identifies its vision as “a multi-generational membership who understands and appreciates the wilderness and cultural values of [the Snowbowl area].”
Among the objectives outlined in the proposal is also “to provide an opportunity to go experience, learn about, and develop a deep appreciation for the area,” and “to form lifelong memories, through shared experiences in an incredible area.”
Cox said she feels good about the proposal, but recognized that “the ball is in Parks’ court now,” and all she and other members can do is sit back and wait to see what the organization will say.
Most members of the ski club remain tight-lipped about the proposal, preferring to wait for Parks’ decision before revealing too many of their feelings about the future of their organization.
“It’s really a wait-and-see game to see what Parks Canada says,” Jim Argan said, encapsulating the feelings of most ski club members.
Parks could not be reached for comment by the Fitzhugh’s press time, but according to ski club treasurer Bob Worsfold, the organization did respond to the proposal, thanking the executive for submitting it and telling club members it needed time to review it.
Cox also said that Parks appears keen to work with the club to ensure the cabin remains open.
“Parks had expressed a willingness to work with us, because this is a very historic cabin, and a lot of people have had an introduction to the backcountry in a nice way through it,” she said.
She and Worsfold both said they expect details will have to be hammered out with Parks before the proposal is accepted, but that they hope a decision comes before the start of the next season.
Trevor Nichols
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