The first shelter was built in 1927 by the National Park Service after a number of climbers died ascending Longs Peak.

The shelter was named for Agnes Vaille, who died while descending from the first winter ascent of the east face of Longs Peak on January 12, 1925.

[6] Vaille met Walter Kiener in the Colorado Mountain Club; they decided to be the first climbers to make a winter ascent of the east face of Longs Peak.

[3] The first stone shelter was built in 1927 under the direction of Roger Toll, Superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park and Vaille's cousin.

[10] The shelter was designed in the spirit of the National Park Service rustic style to blend with the local landscape, located above 13,400 feet (4,100 m) elevation on the edge of an area known as the Boulder Field.

Kiener arrived in Denver in 1923, took a job as a butcher, and joined the Colorado Mountain Club where he met Vaille.

[8] Kiener suffered frostbite as a result of the Longs Peak expedition and lost several fingers, most of his toes, and part of a foot.

He was given the job of seasonal ranger, manning the fire lookout station on top of Twin Sisters, by Superintendent Toll.

[14] Keiner's extensive collection of plant specimens, catalogs, field notes, reference books is housed at the University of Nebraska State Museum.