If you have more questions, beyond the info below, we'd enjoy to talk with you in real time, feel free to call us at 1 888 564 8747

¤ Some of our Guest's Testimonials

"Simply one of the finest, most memorable experiences a person could ask for. The skiing and touring were fantastic - but that was only part of the overall package. You provide generous hospitality and great company". Squid, from Wyoming

"Wow, the Carlyle is just incredible. What a week of long alpine tours, powder in the trees and even a face shot or two! Sunrises in the morning were spectacular on Long Peak and Heyland and the sunset over the Kokanee Glacier and Kokanee Peaks was amazing. Thanks for a memorable week." Mike-Utah

"Thanks so much for an awesome week of superb hospitality, meals and pow pow. We enjoyed the incredible diversity of terrain & deep freshies. What a wonderful week!" Derek-San Francisco.

"As a Swede, who has been skiing in both Europe and in the U.S. this was a great experience. The Canadian Rockies in general, and especially the Kokanee Range, impressed me. Your lodge is super comfortable and is situated in a fantastic location, right between the alpine and the trees. When we were there, it snowed a lot some nights, still we could always find safe skiing. More stable days, we had fantastic skiing and views from the ridges and peaks". Ara- Sweden

"Our tenth anniversary as group and our first and definitely not last trip to Mt Carlyle Lodge! Thanks for the wonderful and charming accommodations, the excellent guiding and your great hospitality and enthusiasm. You are a fantastic team." Chris- Penticton

Our Experience: Jeff Gfroerer (Owner/Operator/Lead Guide) has been managing from the ground up, all aspects, including construction, lodge systems, helicopter organization, avalanche forecasting etc. of high remote backcountry lodges for the past 21 years.

Our Operating Area Stats: 40 square kilometers.
~ Our average accumulated vertical descents in a day are around 4000 - 5000 feet and some groups are skiing/boarding 6 to 7000'.
~ Our individual descents range from 600 to 2500 vertical feet with the average run being 1500 vertical feet, and take place between the 8000 to 5800 foot elevation band, which supports a consistent good quality of snow in relation to temperatures and wind affect.
~ 40% of the terrain is North - NW - 20% NE and the remainder is S and SW facing.
~ Access to: 28 different alpine basins.
~ Variety of terrain open and treed: 50% of our terrain is open Alpine and the remainder is tree-line and below.
~ Difficulty of terrain: We can cater to all ability levels but it does help to be a confident skier/boarder when traveling on the high ridges and quick on the turn when we ski the tree's.

SELKIRK POW: This phenomena has to do with our geographical location and the jet stream patterns. In general our weather starts mainly in the Northern Aleutian Islands and from there the jet stream carries cold arctic air down south west or just west of us, mixing with warm air out in the Pacific creating moisture and low pressure systems that start spinning towards us, coming far enough of the coast and gaining in elevation due to orographic lift, things cool down and the precipitation ends up as "Selkirk Pow".

Our Snow Quality : Snow is snow, or is that so? There are locations that can guarantee, more consistent powder.
We feel fortunate to be in one of these areas, since your skiing/snowboarding experience is as important to us as it is to you.
Why do we have more consistent powder? Carlyle is located in the central part of the Southern Selkirks, world-renown for snow quantity and quality, but of significance here is the mountain topography surrounding us, which consists of tight cirque-shaped Alpine basins offering endless sub-alpine and below tree-line skiing/snowboarding options on numereous northerly aspects. At tree-line and below is where you always find good snow, since this is where the snow stays protected from pounding mountain winds.
On average the storm trends come from the SW with the front ranges of the Selkirk Uplift taking the brunt of the first wave of winds. While certain locations here mainly only with open exposed Alpine and limited tree skiing/boarding are greatly affected by high winds, we with our central geographical location, protected mountain features and endless treeline and below-treeline areas, can always find exceptional snow.

Our Comfortable winter temperatures, "not to cold and not to warm" not only allows you to enjoy the great outdoors, but also promotes favorable snow settlement enhancing snow stability, since moderate winter temperatures inhibit the development of weaker snow layers, that develop more consistently in dryer colder regions to the East and NE of us.

What backcountry ski/snowboarding experience are you getting yourself into?

If you are looking for a mountain lodge-based backcountry skiing/snowboarding trip mainly to get away to a lodge, high in the mountains to enjoy a special place and will be happy with "some" good "skiing/boarding" (referring to descending in good snow conditions with good visibility and good variety) then there may be no need for you to read on. But if you want to max-out on your "ski/snowboarding" experience (descending), you may want to continue.

When you decide to go on a backcountry lodge-based ski/snowboard week, you are taking a roll of the dice, with what weather and snow conditions you will have. Your backcountry week is costing you a good sum of money with travel expenses and trip costs all adding up and it probably is the only week in a year where you have opted to fly into a backcountry lodge location and put your faith towards an exceptional ski/snowboarding experience... In conjunction with the comforts and services of a mountain lodge, you probably want to get lots of "great skiing or snowboarding", during your week, regardless of mountain/weather and how it could perhaps affect the freeride conditions adversely. In order to have a great freeride week, you will need an area that offers diverse backcountry ski/snowboarding terrain with lots of options to support good skiing/snowboarding for all types of different weather and snow conditions.
Perhaps you'll have the luck and get one of those perfect weeks where it all lines up, but I must admit that after spending 23 consecutive winters high in the British Columbia backcountry, those stellar freeride weeks where you have good consecutive weather days, perfect snow and good visibility and stability happen perhaps twice a season. The majority of the winter, the weather is going in and out of storm cycles and associated with these mountain storms are high winds, usually in the alpine, which create adverse snow conditions in relation to snow quality and snow stability. There's the odd clear day in between, usually it's snowing and storming, rather than not, that's how the Selkirk Mountains reach 60 - 100 feet of annual snowfall!
Therefore during most of the winter in British Columbia, the visibility and snow stability are both dangling in the "fair" classification. The norm is, snow stability and visibility peak-out at good and very good, here and there, staying in that range only for short periods of time, due to this, it's important to have access to terrain that accommodates British Columbia's mountain winter weather trends, to ensure an optimum ski/snowboard experience.

If it's snowing during your freeride week, you'll surely get more enjoyable descents in an area that offers good "visibility reference" such as in the sub-alpine and below tree-line with a "good variety" of treed terrain offering long runs. With "good variety" we mean the option of skiing/snowboarding in new terrain for fresh tracks, every day. You will also enjoy an area where you have quick access to open alpine terrain to take advantage of the good weather and visibility, which may only last for a few hours, in comparison to having to make long approaches, exposed to white-out conditions or the next incoming weather system.
Storm snow, usually takes a few days to settle and until this happens, you'll want favorable access to a variety of good safe sub alpine and treed terrain and also access to safe short steep open pitches to accommodate skiing/snowboarding in deep fresh snow. During average visibility and stability conditions you will probably want to have the option of exploring numerous different areas from a lodge rather then being limited to just a few areas/basins. If you fall into a time period where it has not snowed much for a week or two, you'll want to be in a location with terrain that's been sheltered from winds (sub-alpine and below tree-line) and with Northerly aspects.

At Mt. Carlyle Lodge we are fortunate to provide you with all of they key terrain factors you will need for an exceptional week of backcountry skiing or boarding. This is not just what we think, it's what experienced backcountry skiers and snow boarders that have explored most other backcountry lodges in British Columbia, tell us over and over again.
How and why we were fortunate to end up in this unique location: In 1987 owner operator Jeff Gfroerer was the first to offer helicopter accessed mountain lodge based accommodation in the Kootenays and amongst the first few in British Columbia. At that time, he was already a well seasoned backcountry ski enthusiast, having many miles and descents behind him in the mountains of Austria, Switzerland, Italy and British Columbia. The lodge location was chosen carefully with much consideration to offer the best terrain available. Back then we had the opportunity to select from a vast area, since the majority of mountain terrain in BC was undeveloped. We were not limited by having to fit ourselves in-between numerous already existing Helicopter/Snow-Cat and other backcountry lodge operators. We meticulously researched all areas that looked promising over a large geographical area, and made sure we would be choosing the best terrain with great variety, and excellent freeriding options for all weather/snow and mountain conditions one may get during a skiing/boarding week.

¤ When it comes to "your backcountry lodge based ski/snowboard experience", we believe that: Beyond the spectacular BC mountain scenery and the comforts and services offered of a backcountry ski and snowboarding lodge, you should also have good access to an "endless variety" of excellent terrain options offering you an exceptional backcountry ski and snowboard experience for a full week, without compromise, no matter what mountain conditions/weather you get and an area that offers good consistent snow quality, powder being priority.