A lot of work, and a spectacular result.

Trailhead
At the end of the parking area, walk past three orange metal posts blocking access to a gravel road. Head up the road for 80 metres until it intersects with another gravel road. (This is the old railway bed.) Turn right on this road and follow it for 140 metres until you reach the Glacier House monument and ruins. The trail begins on the left side, just before the stone monument. You can follow the signs from here.

Trail
The trail follows the path of Asulkan Creek for the first 3.8 kilometres of its journey. The hiking is easy, but you are constantly crossing slide paths, so watch out for bears. The ridge on your right contains some spectacular peaks and some great alpine rock climbing. As you work your way up the valley, you can start to see glaciers at the back end. [read more]

From here, the trail climbs steeply across a slide path, crosses Asulkan Brook on a removable bridge, cuts through a bit of forest, and then climbs a brutally steep moraine ridge. You gain about 750 metres in elevation over 2.5 kilometres after leaving the valley floor. That’s an average grade of about 30%.

The steepness eases a bit toward the end. The first hint of the hut you see is the roof of the outhouse, and then the hut itself. The hut is operated by the Alpine Club of Canada and is usually locked during the day, but the front porch makes a spectacular (and sheltered) picnic area.

The Asulkan Glacier comes pretty close to the hut, but you are advised not to walk on to it unless you are equipped for glacier travel.

Here’s what you are looking at while standing behind the hut looking south. The peak on the left in Young’s Peak, the col at the back of the glacier is Asulkan Pass, and the triple peak on the right is Mount Jupiter. The minor peaks on this mountain are named, from the left, Lena, Pollux and Castor.

The col to the north of Jupiter is Sapphire Col. There is a bivvy hut up there, and sometimes you can see climbers on the ridge.

From the front porch of the hut, you are looking north. You can see the green roof of the Roger’s Pass Centre way down below, and looming above it is Mount Tupper, the Tupper and Swiss Glaciers, and Mount Rogers.

Cautions

• Watch for bears in the slide paths along Asulkan Brook.
• Keep an eye on the weather. It can change very quickly.
• Don’t venture on to the Asulkan Glacier unless you are equipped for glacier travel.

From the junction of Highway 95 and Highway 1 in Golden, drive west on the Trans Canada Highway for 81 kilometres. Drive past the Rogers Pass centre and head down the steep hill on the west side of the pass. When the highway becomes twinned in a 50 kilometre zone, get ready to turn left into the Illecillewaet campground at 83.4 km. Drive past the campground and park in the paved parking area.