The R.J. Ritchie Hut (Balfour Hut) is an alpine hut located at an altitude of between the southern tip of the Wapta Icefield and the northern tip of the Waputik Icefield in

Banff National Park Banff National Park is Canada, Canada's first National Parks of Canada, national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rockies, Alberta's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary, Banff encompasses of mountainous ter ...

. The hut is at the half-way mark for the Wapta traverse and is usually used in conjunction with the other huts in this chain while attempting a cross-glacier ski trip. The hut is maintained by the

Alpine Club of Canada The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) is an amateur athletic association with its national office in Canmore, Alberta that has been a focal point for Canadian mountaineering since its founding in 1906. The club was co-founded by Arthur Oliver Wheeler, ...

. The hut sleeps 18 in the summer and 16 in the winter. It is equipped with propane-powered lamps and stovetop. The hut requires approximately three to five hours of glacier travel to get to from the Bow Hut, or six to eight hours from the Scott Duncan Hut.

Location

The hut is found on low, rocky hills at the

toe Toes are the digits of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being ''digitigrade''. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being ''plantigrade''; ...

of the Vulture Glacier. It is east of Balfour Pass and the

continental divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

, just inside the boundary of

History

The original Balfour Hut, a

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...

igloo An igloo (Inuit languages: , Inuktitut syllabics (plural: )), also known as a snow house or snow hut, is a type of shelter built of suitable snow. Although igloos are often associated with all Inuit, they were traditionally used only by the ...

built in 1965 at Balfour Pass in

, was the first hut on the Wapta Icefield. Construction was undertaken by the

and the Calgary Ski Club. It survived until 1971, having been disassembled and reassembled entirely with Swiss Army Knives, airlifted by helicopter, and inadvertently dropped onto a

glacial moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris ( regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice s ...

. Eventually, marauding bands of

wolverine The wolverine ( , ; ''Gulo gulo''), also called the carcajou or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species, member of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The w ...

s destroyed it. The second Balfour Hut was constructed in 1971 of cedar logs on the south side of Mount Olive to the west of the

Yoho National Park Yoho National Park ( ) is a National Parks of Canada, national park of Canada. It is located within the Canadian Rockies, Rocky Mountains along the western slope of the Continental Divide of the Americas in southeastern British Columbia, bordere ...

. It lasted for 18 years. In 1989, the current metal hut was built at a new location in Banff National Park: the toe of the Vulture Glacier.

Nearby

* Wapta Icefield * Waputik Icefield * Bow Hut * Scott Duncan Hut

References

{{Reflist Mountain huts in Canada Buildings and structures in Banff National Park