Updated March 13, 2026 10:53AM
Isaac Kamink moves with non-stop purpose. One minute he’s shoveling epic amounts of snow, the next he’s dangling 25-feet above the ground installing communications hardware by hand in the cold dead of winter. He knows how to fix solar panels, plumb propane, vent a wood stove, and cook five-star meals on a gas burner. And that’s not even his day job.
It’s early April of 2025 when I join him to help to fix up his at-the-time unnamed hut in the snow-plastered Selkirk Mountains, high above Revelstoke, British Columbia. The tiny, stacked-timber building is a cozy but strange artifact in the landscape. There are serrated peaks with couloirs spilling down all around us, branching off interconnected ridgelines with open bowls, and heavenly glades of hemlock and fir guarding all sides.
I know what you’re thinking: “Another backcountry hut?” But this one’s different, and offers something that you simply can’t get anywhere else: It’s designed for just four guests at a time.
“Hut trips have gotten really expensive,” explains Zoya Lynch, Kamink’s partner and hut co-owner. “Isaac has clients he’s guided for 10 years, who are all doctors, and are like, ‘Yeah, we can’t afford to go anymore.’”
A lot of that is logistics. It can be hard to fill out an 18-person ski-touring lodge for the week—people have jobs and lives, and just getting to this corner of Canada is challenging in and of itself. The solution for Lynch and Kamink is small groups and short trips. It’s something no other guided hut of this caliber currently offers in Canada. Combine that with the opportunity to ski some of the most exciting—and under-the-radar—backcountry terrain on the continent, and the lure of this new hut is pretty compelling.
As the crow flies, we’re not far from Revelstoke Mountain Resort, one of the most reliable powder stashes in North America. We flew over it this morning during the less-than-five-minute heli bump into this barely known ski-touring tenure.
“I’m still getting to know it,” Kamink humbly notes, betraying his over two decades of history in these mountains. As the operations manager at Golden Alpine Holidays—the famed hut business with four cabins just east of Rogers Pass that has been part of nearly every ski movie over the last 15 years—Kamink’s entire career has revolved around ski-touring huts.
First established in 2021 by American mountain guide Mike Bromberg, the secretive powder arena I’m just now discovering was scarcely developed or advertised when Kamink and Lynch bought it last year. This is about to change.
“That’s where we’ll put this sauna this summer,” Kamink tells me, pointing 100 feet northeast as he lays out his vision for this exclusively foot-powered 8,000-acre zone.
If the names of the new owners sound familiar, it’s because they are. Lynch is a former pro skier and one of the most finely tuned backcountry ski photographers in Western Canada. For Kamink’s part, flip open the book Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America to pages 58 through 61, and you’ll catch an ode to he and his friends’ first descent of Rogers Pass’s Comstock Couloir in 2008.
But that kind of bravado is far from his mind these days, with all that’s in front of him.
“It is really cool to see the culmination of all of Isaac’s skills coming together in this one project,” Lynch explains. “I feel like he’s the exact right man for the job.”
She would know. Lynch grew part-time at Amiskwi Backcountry Lodge in the Canadian Rockies, where her family owned shares when she was young.
“We’ve both worked in this industry for a long time, and I grew up in it as well,” she continues. “We’re trying to be mindful of every dollar we spend, but we also really believe in investing in this space.”
Indeed, the original hut was exceptionally basic; It needs more space and amenities, and that’s the big project now—as well as mapping out the nebulous backcountry bounty it accesses.
As we sink our tails into run after run of bottomless pow, draining 3,000-foot slide paths deep into the valley and airing off pillows that feel made for God to rest his head on, the private ecstasy of this hidden locale becomes clear. But it’ll take another year to be fully realized.
Fast forward to winter 2026, through a feverish summer of heli-slinging materials into the alpine, pounding nails, and calling in favors from everyone the couple knows, and the newly christened Hemlock Hut makes its official debut. The now two-building compound has quadrupled in space, now featuring a sauna, shower, and private digs for the guests in addition to the common spaces.
The original cabin, where guests still eat, gather, and gab, now also has a wraparound deck for peak gazing. For all practical purposes, it’s a whole new experience. And the intimate size allows for maximum flexibility and a more deliberate experience. There’s no sleeping next to strangers, and no overly extended time away from work or family. And the heli flight here is so quick you still get a full day of skiing on day one, so you can maximize your time. That’s something Kamink and Lynch understand very well, with a young toddler of their own.
Shorter trips also make it easier to unplug and fully immerse yourself. While there’s cell reception so the guide can get critical weather and avalanche info, the hut is designed to be decidedly rustic. Which is perfect, since earning your turns already speaks to a holistic attitude, one in which living simply—think home-cooked food, a vast amphitheater of private powder, and time with good friends—is everything you need.
If You Go…
Hemlock Hut is located in a helicopter-accessed tenure in the Selkirk range, outside of Revelstoke Mountain Resort. The terrain is geared toward experts, and comprises moderate pitches, old-growth, and steep chutes. Guides are happy to tailor the experience to guests’ desires.
The hut itself is 225 square feet, and accommodates four guests at a time in a two double beds. Meals, guiding, and heli transfers in and out of the hut are included; group meals are cooked by the guides. Rates for four nights lodging and three days of skiing start at $1,890 CAD, which works out to around $1,375 at press time. Find more info, including where to book, here.
