- Assiniboine Lodge Manager and Host
- Super skier
- Food and wine lover
- Mom of Alexandre and Anne-Marie
Annick fell in love with mountain life when she moved to B.C. from Quebec at 19. She’s never looked back! As Lodge Manager at Assiniboine, Annick welcomes guests with open arms to her mountain home. She and her lodge staff team ensure that delicious food, cozy beds and a welcoming lodge await guests returning from a day out in the mountains. With her many years of experience cooking and working in backcountry lodges and her fun, caring nature, Annick is a mentor and teacher to many young Assiniboine Lodge staff.
As Lodge Manager, Annick joins her husband Claude Duchesne and business partner Andre Renner as your host at Assiniboine Lodge.
Born in Quebec City, Annick first fell in love with the B.C. lifestyle (and learned to speak English!) in 1981 when she came west with the Katimavik youth volunteer program. In 1985 after her last school exam Annick moved to Lake Louise for a ski season and never moved back East.
Annick’s first initiation into backcountry cooking was at Skoki Lodge in 1986 where she cooked for guests on a wood stove! Her love of the mountain life then took her to Whistler, B.C. from 1987 – 1991. She cooked for tree planting crews, skied, hiked and climbed. In 1991 she and her husband Claude moved to Rossland. There they opened Elmer’s Corner Café in 1994 and started a family in 1995. For the next several years, Annick spent winters at home teaching her two young kids, Alexandre and Anne-Marie, to ski. Summers were spent cooking at Assiniboine Lodge.
In 2001 Annick and Claude moved to Revelstoke, B.C. to raise their kids in a mountain community close to ski hills, National Parks, lakes and all the outdoor activities they love. Living in Revelstoke, Annick polished her baking skills at the Modern Bake Shop, coached kids at the Revelstoke Ski Club and continued cooking as a relief chef at Assiniboine Lodge and the Alpine Club General Mountaineering Camp in the summers. 2006 in Torino and again in 2010 in Whistler, Annick got a “behind the scenes” view of the Olympics cooking for Cross Country Canada.
When Annick, Claude and Andre Renner took over the tenure for Assiniboine Lodge in 2011, the big lodge renovation soon got underway. Annick and her daughter Anne-Marie spent the summer cooking for the hungry construction crew.
