MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall / Winter 2017

FALL/WINTER 2017 MLCM 69 words :: Feet Banks Like spindrift snow gusting through the cracks and crannies of too many dilapidated alpine shelters, the idea for a new backcountry hut design has been swirling around Wilson Edgar’s head for decades. “I built a lot of forts as a kid,” Wilson says. “There were enough kids in my neighbourhood back in Ontario that we could build two-storey snow forts. So we did. In the summers, I’d be out paddling on the lakes or hiking and constantly looking at, and thinking about, cottages, cabins, forts and hideouts.” In 1999, Wilson relocated to British Columbia, driving through the Rockies with Michael Leckie, an old neighbourhood friend on his way to architecture school in Vancouver. Two decades later, Edgar, now President of the British Columbia Mountaineering Club (BCMC), continued to fuel his daydreams of the perfect backcountry hut. “The more time I spent exploring the wilderness, the more I saw a need for a backcountry hut that’s easier to build and customizable for the space it inhabits,” he says. After working with a team of volunteers on the construction of the BCMC’s Water Sprite Lake shelter near Squamish, Wilson was inspired to finally pull the trigger on his recurring dream of totally redesigning the idea of a recreational shelter. And he knew exactly who to call first. BACKCOUNTRY HUTS 2.0 ENVISIONING A BETTER WAY TO BUILD UP HIGH MOUNTAIN HOME “Mike Leckie had become this incredible architect,” he says, “but he’s also a surfer who has spent the last couple decades exploring the west coast from Haida Gwaii to the Baja. So, twenty years after we drove out, I came to him and he instantly wanted to participate.” After about six months of design and collaboration on the idea of a modular, customizable and easy-to-assemble backcountry shelter, the Backcountry Hut Company (BHC) became official. And Michael’s final design immediately earned a 2016 Award of Merit from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. The problem with many backcountry huts, Wilson explains, is that builders too-often try to transpose traditional building methods and materials into hard to access or environmentally sensitive areas. Wilson and Michael’s concept is a modular approach similar to what IKEA did for furniture (albeit with more in-depth instructions).