STORY BY KATE DALY

PHOTOS BY JOE ST. ONGE and ERC

The goal is lofty: To preserve the huts for perpetuity.

So states Ashton Wilson, executive director of Ketchum’s Environmental Resource Center  when describing the nonprofit’s fundraising push to cover the organization’s recent purchase of Sun Valley Mountain Huts.

A skier celebrates her arrival at the Tornak yurt.

The huts are a collection of six yurts spread out in the backcountry north of Sun Valley.

So far, donors have come through with more than half of the total $1.5 million needed, a number that includes $200,000 estimated for operating expenses.

The Pioneer, Coyote and Tornak yurts are located in the Ketchum Ranger District, and the Boulder, Fishhook and Bench huts are in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

Joe and Francie St. Onge have owned them for decades and rented them out to outdoor enthusiasts year-round. Wilson says the couple wanted to hand the huts over to public hands to give more people access to these remote outposts in nature.

Yurt users watch the sunset at the Pioneer yurt.

That fits with ERC’s mission of connecting people to nature through education and action. And it solves another issue for the organization.

With the influx of younger families moving into the Wood River Valley during COVID, Wilson says there has been an increasing demand for youth programs.

For years, the ERC has been looking to buy a property to run summer education camps. Organizational leaders figured acquisition could run anywhere to between $3 million and $9 million dollars, which Wilson calls, “unattainable.”

The huts will now serve as a home base for youth programs and other educational opportunities, such as wilderness skills workshops, service learning and citizen science. And rental of the yurts will bring in some income.

The ERC used the Pioneer yurt for an Eco Camp this past summer.

In the past, all of the yurts have been rented out during the winter to private groups, with two of the yurts permitted for summer use. The minimum fee was $480 per night and went up from there depending on what support services were needed from staff. The latest numbers show a 61 percent occupancy rate in the winter, and 21 percent in the summer.

Wilson foresees that ERC would need to beef up staffing to run the huts system, and plans to continue to keep Jon “JP” Preuss on board. But he is confident the rental income will help subsidize the plans for expanded education and action programs.

Wilson also sees the huts enabling more learning opportunities for teaching people about everything from dark sky and constellations to pine martens in these new but old “classrooms in the wild.”

The huts’ history goes back to the 1979s when Joe Leonard built the first ones up north.  Bob Jonas bought the outfitting business from him in the 1980s, founded Sun Valley Trekking and went on to build five huts.

Kids assume dishwashing duties at the Pioneer yurt.

In 1988 Sun Valley Heli Ski built the Pioneer yurt. The St. Onges took over Sun Valley Trekking huts in 2000 and later added the Pioneer yurt to their operation.  In 2018 Sun Valley Trekking split into Sun Valley Guides and the St. Onges renamed Sun Valley Mountain Huts.

Wilson says the ERC is being mentored by the St. Onges on managing the huts and that all of the past rental dates will be available to future hut renters.

Donors are encouraged to go to https://ercsv.org/get-involved/support-erc for more information.