Experience the Legendary Island Lake
Built by people who
believed in this place.
Long before the first tracks
The land comes first.
Some cedars in this valley are at least 800 years old. The lodge’s history is a short chapter in a much older landscape.
The lodge archive follows surveying and logging, early ski tours, and the first winter guests. It records part of the valley’s history; it is not a complete account of the land or its peoples.
Looking after what comes next
Island Lake in print
The covers that carried the legend.
Skiing and snowboarding magazines brought Island Lake’s deep snow, big lines, and defining personalities to readers around the world.
A few moments that made a place
The Island Lake timeline.
- 1874
The Lizard Range gets its name
Prospector Michael Phillips explored Island Lake and named Lizard Creek for the salamanders at its headwaters. The name later extended to the mountain range.
- 1907
A working valley
The North America Land and Lumber Company acquired the local mill and timber rights. Logging reached the lower valley; higher up, the ancient forest endured.
- 1940s
The first ski lines
Fernie locals toured into the valley for day trips and nights in the mountains, pioneering ski lines decades before the first snowcat arrived.
- 1986
The idea takes shape
Island Lake Mountain Tours began as a small ski-touring operation, leasing the property from Shell. A remote valley was becoming a place to share.
- 1988
A lodge. A cat. A beginning.
Bear Lodge was built, and the first snowcat arrived in December. Cat Skiing began, with meals, rooms and fireside stories gathered under one log roof.
- Early 1990s
The legends find their mountain
Scot Schmidt, Craig Kelly, Greg Stump and Mark Gallup helped bring Island Lake into the imagination of skiers and snowboarders around the world.
- 1993
The cameras are rolling
Greg Stump filmed here for P-Tex, Lies & Duct Tape. Island Lake’s powder and peaks became part of a defining era in mountain filmmaking.
- 1994
A mountain to call our own
Island Lake Mountain Tours purchased the property from Shell, bringing the lodge and the land it operated on into the same hands.
- 1996
Room for more stories
Red Eagle Lodge was built, expanding the accommodation beyond the original Bear Lodge.
- 2002
Cedar joins the valley
Cedar Lodge added another welcoming place to stay, with timber warmth and room to settle in after the snow.
- 2004
The next chapter in hospitality
Construction began on Tamarack Lodge, which would become home to the dining room, spa and eight guest suites.
- 2012–2013
Bears Above the Valley
Mark Gallup and Mike McPhee’s book marked Island Lake’s 25th anniversary, bringing its landscape, photographs and influential mountain characters together in print.
- Today
The story is still being written
By the people who return, the people who care for the place, and the friendships made out in the snow.
An early view of Island Lake
Before the legend,
there was the lake.
Local ski tours in the 1940s. A log lodge in 1988. Then came the skiers, riders, and films that put this valley on the map.
The beginning of cat skiing
One lodge. One snowcat.
Bear Lodge was built in 1988. The first snowcat arrived that December. Meals, beds, and the evening’s stories all fit under one roof.
The faces behind the legend
A shared way of seeing.
Skiing
Scot Schmidt
An influential freeskiing figure whose time in this valley became the stuff of legend
The Scot Schmidt storySnowboarding
Craig Kelly
A pioneering rider whose pursuit of powder and backcountry freedom is woven into Island Lake’s heritage.
In Mark Gallup’s remembrance, Island Lake was where Craig found room to make the transition from world champion to backcountry soul rider.
Remembering Craig Kelly
Film
Greg Stump
The pioneering filmmaker who brought Island Lake’s powder and peaks to audiences around the world.
Stump filmed at Island Lake for P-Tex, Lies & Duct Tape, capturing a defining era in big-mountain skiing.
Photography
Mark Gallup
The photographer whose alpine images helped define how the world sees Island Lake.
Gallup’s work with generations of skiers and snowboarders became part of the visual history collected in Bears Above the Valley.
Ski-film pioneer
Warren Miller.
Warren Miller helped make ski films an annual winter ritual—and gave generations a reason to chase snow.
Warren Miller film crews returned to Island Lake repeatedly, using its expansive glades, steep alpine bowls, and deep powder as a backdrop for productions including Ride. Craig Kelly and Scot Schmidt became regular fixtures in those films and in Island Lake’s story.
Explore the Warren Miller film archive
Island Lake on screen
Bear Grylls.
Man vs. Wild.
Bear Grylls and his crew came to Island Lake to film two Canadian Rockies episodes of Man vs. Wild, bringing the valley’s winter wilderness to audiences around the world.
One unforgettable sequence: Grylls being buried alive beneath the snow.
Watch “Buried Alive” on YouTube
Where it all began
The Bear is still the heart.
Pull up a chair in the original lodge. Look out at the peaks. There is something reassuring about a place that carries its past into the present without turning into a museum.
Inside the Bear Bar
Bears Above the Valley
The stories between the photographs.
Created for Island Lake’s 25th anniversary, Bears Above the Valley brings together the people and photography behind the lodge’s story.
Its story reaches from the old-growth Cedar Valley to the backcountry lines of Scot Schmidt and Craig Kelly. It is a record of the landscape, and of the photographers, filmmakers, skiers and snowboarders who helped make this place a legend.
Read Scot Schmidt’s storyRemembering Craig KellyNow it's your turn to add to our story
Explore Island Lake
The land behind the legend.
A conversation is the beginning
Who would you
bring here?
Tell us your dates, your group size, and what you have in mind.
Our concierge will help you plan the stay.