New West Series

Lodge Near Butte Works Off the Grid By Necessity and Choice

By Lindsey Galipeau, Guest Writer, 6-30-11

	Homestake Lodge, perched near the Continental Divide, was designed by necessity to be completely "off the grid." Photo courtesy Homestake Lodge.

ABOUT THIS SERIES: Students from The University of Montana School of Journalism, with the help of American Public Media’s Public Insight Network, reported and wrote stories for New West on the energy economy of the Rocky Mountain region. The project originated as part of the Green Thread initiative at UM.

Three miles of winding dirt road along the Continental Divide lead to a hiker’s and cross-country skier’s paradise. Homestake Lodge is tucked in the mountains, alongside the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest just east of Butte, Mont. It is a lodge built to be green for both logistical and ethical reasons.

The owners, Mandy and Chris Axelson, built their home in 2007 and their lodge in 2008 using its extreme location as an excuse to finally live their dream of running a hostel-style cross-country ski lodge with the smallest carbon footprint possible.

They live completely off the power grid.

Their home and lodge are powered by solar panels with the help of a wood-stove fueled gasification boiler for particularly cloudy days. The Photovoltaic panels are located on the roof of their barn and generate 6,500 watts, enough for all their electrical needs. Another array of solar panels used for heating their water is located on the south side of their lodge.

These panels not only provide hot water but warm the basement by sending the hot water under the floor for radiant heating. Wood stoves, however, still provide most of the warmth in the three large buildings.

Leaving as little a carbon footprint as possible was important to the Axelsons when making their decision to build.

“Because it’s a cross-country ski area and sort of involved with the outside, we wanted to be as environmentally responsible as we could and still fulfill the needs of our customers and guests,” Chris said, “and it’s remarkable how it’s worked out.”

Since the Axelsons designed their buildings from the ground up, they were able to consider how to get the most out of green power.

In the winter, the sun can stream through the windows most of the day due to the architecture. Mandy added that even on cold winter days, if the sun comes out, it can get too warm in the lodge.
“I think that passive solar design is really important,” Mandy says, “and it is what makes it work.”

Off-the-Grid Living

The Axelsons are part of a small but growing effort to live power-line free. There are currently an estimated 250,000 people living off-grid in the United States according to Home Power Magazine and that number continues to rise.

“I see people who live off-grid as the foot soldiers of the environmental revolution,” Nick Rosen, a British author and activist, said in an interview with CNN, “the early adopters of what we will all have to do in the very near future.”

Rosen added what unifies people giving it a go is freedom. They can live out of government control while taking a stand as an environmentalist.

Earlier this year, New West looked at how another family from the Bitterroot Valley in Montana managed to build their dream home off the grid for environmental reasons.

There are two other reasons Rosen says living off-the-grid is rising in popularity.

“One is the fact that Americans are falling out of trust with their system, that they’re realizing it can no longer look after them,” he said to Salon.com.“And the second is that the technology that has risen up has made it possible to live very comfortably off the grid.”

The Axelsons, aware of this new technology, opted to take advantage of it.

The Front End Investment

The decision to go off the grid has been a lot easier for the Axelsons than trying to bring power up to Homestake Pass, but it did require major investment up front. But it was more than just money they needed to deal with.

“You have to be willing to put the time and energy into understanding the system and making a conscious lifestyle change,” Mandy said.

Chris agreed it’s no small change.

“It’s not something that you can just kinda do and not be involved with,” Chris said. “You have to be active in the management of the heating and resource usage.”

The Axelsons are always thinking about energy. They have to make sure cords are unplugged and know when it’s going to be cold so they can control the heat. But there is one easy part. Although there is planning; maintenance, they said, is a snap.

“Mandy and I, I don’t think, have not lifted a thumb on that since it was put in three years ago,” Chris laughed.

So while they may need to constantly be thinking about conserving energy, they need to worry very little about the system actually working. And…

“You don’t have a monthly bill to pay,” Mandy said. “If you think of it in terms of a business rather than a residence, it’s pretty significant.”

The business of Homestake Lodge varies throughout the year. Most, if not all of the winter, is focused on cross-country skiing. Both Mandy and Chris have been involved in the sport for years. Mandy skied for Montana State University for four years and Chris was on the United States team and later coached. The lodge has 35 kilometers of trails, most of which are on the Axelsons’ property. The other third is on National Forest land that they are given special permits to use. Families or groups will come to ski for the day or stay a few nights. The Axelsons give lessons as well. In the summer, the activities of the day vary greatly.

This summer is very busy.

“We have four weddings up here, we have a few family reunions, and we have three different youth camps,” Mandy said, “and then we have our own events.”

All the while the lodge is functioning on solar power. The Axelsons said they hope their lodge demonstrates how it is possible to minimize your carbon footprint without sacrificing too much.

“They’ve left here going, ‘Gosh, that’s really no different than living at home’,” Chris said.

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