5040 Peak Hut (Hisimyawitl)

Notes

Hisimyawitl means gather together in the Barkley Sound dialect of the Ucluelet First Nation, and this is the only proper alpine hut on Vancouver Island. Two rooms named Nahmint and Steamboat, six bunks each, booked whole by the room, so a party of three pays for six. It runs on a high efficiency wood pellet stove rather than a wood stove, the only one in the ACC network, specifically so nobody cuts the krummholz for firewood, and there is enough solar for real outlets to charge devices. Summer is 2.5 km and 700 m up the Cobalt Lake Trail, steep the whole way with two fixed ropes over rock steps and a couple of slippery sections; the ACC's own advice is not to call it easy to your partner beforehand. Winter is the same trail plus up to 9.5 km of unploughed Marion Main, which is why they quote 4 to 12 hours. The road itself needs 4WD or AWD and has damaged cars. Skiing runs from the hut up to the 1,520 m summit and down through the trees when it socks in. The vertical is short by mainland standards but there is nothing else like it on the Island, and you should still carry avalanche gear.