Ymir Yurts

Animal Tracks

In the fall as the snow moves down the mountain we see a couple of moose moving down the valley. During the winter we rarely see any tracks as the snow is so deep and many animals are hibernating. As the weather warms up and the snow starts to firm up we start seeing more tracks. Martens are the most common, a few mice, then rabbits. Once in awhile we will see some bigger tracks - perhaps a bobcat or similair. We did have a pack rat at Yurtopia for awhile but no longer. Sara and I followed these Wolf tracks from the valley bottom near Yurtopia over Wildhorse Pass and down towards Ymir in March. I had heard the wolf howling in the fall. In late April we saw large cougar prints ( the same size as the wolf pictured above ) with a young cougar on the same route as the wolf. There was also a pair of younger moose wandering the lower valley. It is pretty neat in the spring as you see everything that is going on.

Yurtopia

It's been a little while since Yurtopia was mentioned on this blog.

The old canvas yurt detoriated a couple of years ago and was replaced with a permanant circular building. Regular 2x6 construction, foam insulation, kerosene and propane heat. The terrain around Yurtopia is still amazing for ski touring.

Google Earth

Last spring Google Earth images for the terrain around the Yurts became hi-resolution which is amazing for examining the terrain from home. I have also created little Qua Yurt .kmz files and Yurtopia Yurt .kmz files which you can download by clicking on the links and they will open Google Earth ( if installed ) and fly you through the terrain showing you the skiing potential in a way that will astound you.

Tranport to the Yurts

The last couple of winter's we have used snowmobiles to transport skiers from Ymir to our snowcat up in the mountains. This winter we are moving to these fine looking vehicles. They will be outfitted with bench seating and we will cruise along the snowy country roads. It takes us about 30 minutes to go from breakfast at the Ymir Palace to loading skis on the snowcat 20 km away.

Nature Conservancy Purchases Darkwoods

On July 24th the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) publicly announced their acquisition of the Darkwoods Property where the Ymir Yurts Yurtopia Yurt is based. The management of Darkwoods informed us several years ago of the intention to sell and subsequent purchase of the company and its lands earlier this year. We have been informed that all existing contracts are being honored. We are very happy with the acquisition by the new owners and the direction towards conservancy of this land. Wildhorse Catskiing also operates on this land.

The New Yurtopia

We did another blast on the reconstruction of Yurtopia. I did a couple of years of ski touring guiding out of Yurtopia and it was my first Yurt project and a lot of good memories and good people shared time out there. It was good to get the Yurt back online again and better than ever. It is going to be wild here. The Yurt will be two stories high ( not including the basement - that is buried in the winter ). One floor for the kitchen and the second story for the sleeping quarters for 8 with a beautiful skylight. The yurt is more like a circular cabin than your typical kit purchased yurt. The old sleeping yurt basement with the sauna will be renovated this coming week to continue as a sauna without a yurt on top.