West Kootenay’s backcountry skiing, hiking and mountaineering options poised to grow

Between the West Kootenay communities of Kaslo and New Denver, on Highway 31 A,  would-be adventure tourism operators are starting to change the landscape.

Mount Brennan Backwoods Recreation Adventure Tourism is the latest operator interested in creating a backwoods recreation area along Highway 31A, with an application for tenure up for public comment.

Proponents Joel Hutton and Braden East are applying for a Crown tenure over 619 ha of land adjacent to their existing family built lodge on 35 acres of private land to grow their existing business of backcountry skiing, hiking, mountaineering on an all-season basis.

Mount Brennan Backwoods Recreation is located 20 km west of Kaslo and 24 km east of New Denver near Highway 31A.

READ MORE: "Unique West Kootenay all-season resort proposal breaks from tradition"

The 10- to 30-year tenure would allow for non-mechanized adventure tourism and commercial recreation that includes guided and self-guided hiking, mountaineering and mountain biking in summer.

Winter activities include guided and self-guided ski touring and mountaineering.

The terrain captured by the tenure would allow guests the opportunity for high elevation recreation while limiting impacts to the local ecosystems. The proponents note the area offers good skiing and hiking at a variety of elevations.

Mount Brennan lodge sits at 1300 metres and has grounds landscaped for a future campground. The lodge provides high end accommodation using a self-contained, run of river system to power the building.

The area contains a number of trails already in use by the public.

Proposed mountain biking trails would be created out of existing mining roads in the area.

There would be limited additional employment to start but it is expected more opportunities would be available as the business grows.

Interested persons have until June 24 to submit comments about the application at this B.C. government website.

A previous expression of interest was forwarded to the province in May for Zincton, a proposal for an all-season resort development covering around  5,500 ha in an area just north of Highway 31A, 8 km east of New Denver and 38 km west of Kaslo.

Both Zincton and Mount Brennan are around 5 hours' drive from Kamloops and 4.5 hours from Kelowna.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to tips@infonews.ca and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.