Guy Hut Update August 6

Foundation Milestone

A major milestone was reached last week during the construction of the Louise and Richard Guy Hut with the completion of the hut's foundation.

A team of ACC staff, professional contractors and volunteers had been working on the foundation for several weeks, digging into the scree, dirt and bedrock of Mont des Poilus, building concrete forms and preparing for the pouring day.

Long lining cement at Mosquito Creek. Photo by Will Schmidt.

On Tuesday, July 28, cement trucks stationed at the Mosquito Creek Hostel parking lot poured cement into hoppers that were long-lined from two helicopters and flown to crews waiting at the hut site. The foundation pour took most of the day.

The foundation has been inspected and approved by engineers and is ready to be built upon.

Cement load heading for the Guy Hut. Photo by Will Schmidt.

Mike Worthington of Worthington Construction mixes cement in a foundation piling. Photo by Roger Vernon.

Next Steps - Steel Beams

The steel beams that will form the framework for the building are in production at Bow-Cor Custom Welding of Canmore, Alberta. The beams are scheduled to be flown into the site this Friday (August 7) with the installation of the vertical beams to begin on the weekend.

Structurally Insulated Panel Construction

The main structure of the hut will be built with structurally insulated panels (SIPs) that have been crafted by Titan Wall of High River, Alberta. The SIPs were packed into 40 crates earlier in July and transported to the staging area on three semi trailers. The first load has been flown to the work site with the other loads due to be flown in on Friday, August 7.

Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs) waiting to head into the mountains. Photo by Rick Gardiner.

Remote Systems Monitoring

When completed, the hut will have complete remote systems monitoring in place to allow ACC facilities staff in Canmore to keep an eye on everything from wind and solar energy generation to battery levels to temperature and CO2 levels in the hut. While the heavy lifting of the construction is the main priority this summer, we're also working on the installation and testing of our monitoring systems.

Construction will continue into the fall with occupancy expected for winter, 2016.