Butters Lake is in the central Selkirk mountains in British Columbia. The Selkirk Range is one of four that make up the Columbia Mountains which lie west of the Rockies and east of the Coast Range. (The other three are the Caribou, the Monashee, and the Purcell ranges.) The Coast Range gets storms first, fresh off the ocean, and has a maritime snowpack. Lots of snow but few good visibility days until late spring. The Rockies gets the last of the storms and has a continental snowpack, thin with many weak layers in most years. The Columbia Ranges are in between with the best of everything, which is why the majority of the Canadian heli-ski industry operates in these mountains. (Although this trip was certainly not in an area used for heli-skiing.)

This first map is a large scale overview to place the region in relation to Calgary, Vancouver (off the map to the left), and the US border. The large rectangle is the area shown in the second map below. There is a red star inside the smaller box marking Golden, which is the meeting place. Most people arrive by car but those that fly usually fly into Calgary and rent a vehicle for the week. Split between several people its not too much. There is bus service as well, although the connection in Calgary from the airport to the bus is not supposed to be too simple. It would also be possible to fly to Spokane and either rent a vehicle there or catch a ride from there with others going up via that route.

This second map below shows the area marked by a rectangle above. The green area is Glacier National Park in the Selkirks (and the smaller one to the left is Mt Revelstoke Natl Park). While the Rockies are largely park land the Selkirks are mostly Crown-owned non-park lands, outside of Glacier Park. The hut is a 15-20 minute helicopter flight (one way) from Golden.

Climbing page

[Butters Lake 2008 Page] [Organized Trips Page]

Guiding page