An Alpine Retreat
The Skoki Ski Lodge was a trailblazer in popularizing the sport of skiing in North America in the 1930s. Skiing was still very much a European leisure pursuit until Skoki was built in the Canadian Rockies near Banff by a group of ski buffs.

Skoki is located at the breathtaking elevation of 7,100 feet. It stands beside a creek, bordered on all sides by mountains and forests spruce, fir and pine. Many modern ski lodges strive for a rustic image but Skoki doesn't have to. It's the real thing, and it has not changed in the six decades since Earl Spencer first designed the log cabin lodge and its three outbuildings.

Skoki can only sleep 22 people at a time and guests have to ride horseback or strap on skis to reach the lodge. Inside the lodge, they will find wooden skies and old-style snowshoes decorating the large stone fireplace. Even today, cabins are lit by kerosene lamps and candles, and heated by wood stoves. A brief experiment with electricity was abandoned after being judged too unreliable. Calls of nature have to be answered with short walks to the men's and ladies outhouses. Another alpine stroll takes guests to a wood-fired sauna. Skoki may be the only ski lodge that's also an historic site.

It has survived the threat of mechanized ski lifts and modern ski resorts springing up in the area. It even rebounded from a tragic ski accident a year after it opened.

A Skoki guest, Dr. R.E. “Kit” Paley, one of Britain's top mathematicians, died in an avalanche while scaling the 9,600-foot high Fossil Mountain for a downhill run. He was nearing the summit when a snowslide swept him down the mountain.

It wasn't the last fatality on the slopes surrounding Skoki. But nothing has ever dampened the enduring appeal of being able to ski straight back into the history books by simply walking through the doors of the Skoki Ski Lodge.