'06 hut-trip report. massive post ...

welp, time to post some pics and a bit of a report from the hut trip i took last week with my gb's timothy and dwight. shoulda got to this earlier ... but so much work piled up whilst i was away that it just wasn't possible. anyway's ... here goes.

day 1:
up at 3:45 a.m. so's i could finish getting myself/my gear together and over to t.'s house for the designated 5 a.m. departure. we made good time until right before the central city tunnel on i-70 ... then we sat there for at least a 1/2 hour for no discernable reason. at least cdot was doing avalanche control to the south of the road so we had some entertainment. i think that would be a fun job - shooting howitzers at cornices just to make them fall down? yessss. anyway, eventually got moving again and drove to frisco for breakfast (a little dinner just down the street from nut's parents place) for a final top off of the old stomach. then on to leadville to where we left the van. on skis/skins about 10 a.m.

on the 6 mile ski into uncle buds hut we caught passed a a group of teenagers and their chaparones who were also on their way up there ... i don't dig on teenagers, sorry. anyway we got in first and took dibs on all of the good bunks. as they were filing in the door, we were already heading out for some turns and recon of the area for the next day's ski. managed to get a couple longish runs in during the waning light of the day. and scoped out the next days target ...

day 2:
up before the kiddies for coffee/oatmeal/bagel ritual. one of them gave me a dirty look as i woke him up when i was getting the fire stoked. thats what he gets for sleeping in communal space ... dipshit. there were only about 5 empty bunks upstairs. anyway, we booted up and were out the door by about 8:30 or so. dropped into this valley west of the hut and then skinned up to a broad, open slope with lots of options for lines. i think the first two runs we did on it were about 450 vert. drop, but then we found a shoot into a gully that added another 150. we lapped it all day for a total of about 4400 vert. not bad for a self propelled day in the colorado bc. close to 7 hours of skiing. uyup. back to the hut for a good meal and several shots (watered down, we're at altitude you know - also had to make it last 5 days) of makers mark. purdy good.

uptrack on day 2. it got like a friggin' super highway towards the end of the day

first run of the day

view from the top of the "all-day" run


the slope we played on, taken on the way back to the hut

day 3:
up early for a travelling day. quick breakfast than out the door at 8 to make our way over to skinner hut - our home for the next couple of days/nights. this was about a 7 mile trip, part of which followed the colorado trail. pretty good skiing (beautiful actually) but the final approach up to the hut was brutal. crazy steep and narrow trail. we ended up breaking trail about half of the total distance - no one, from what we could tell, had linked the two huts together via this route in awhile. anyway, we rolled in about 1 in the afternoon to find an empty hut. well not exactly, there was gear everywhere but everyone was out skiing!! duh!! so we were sitting around doing the recovery thing, and our hut-mates start pouring back in. a group of super cool 50 somethings, several couples and a few singles, obviously good old friends. anyway, we were pretty cashed and were debating about whether or not to go out and do some recon of the area for the next day .... when one of the women says to her hubby "that was some of the best powder i've ever had. so fluid. so forgiving." that was about all i needed to hear. we booted up (i hadn't taken my ski pants off) and went out. we skinned up above treeline (right on the continental divide) and immediately scoped out this steep (35 degress +) rocky chute. it was very enticing. so we skiied it. twice. knee deep powder turns ... yesssss! alpen glow ... yess!!! best part was looking around on the way back up and realizing that there were similar options all over the area. tomorrow would be a good day. pad thai for dinner. chocolate pudding for desert. and more makers mark.

breaking trail on the way to skinner hut

some crazy frozen alpine lake near mt. galena

the chutes we would be skiing on day 4, taken on the approach to the hut. yeah, its up on top of that ridge ...

day 4:
officially the best day i've ever had skiing in the backcountry. we woke up to a pretty strong snow-storm that had been hammering the area all night. and there was no sign of it stopping. the folks we were sharing the hut with were on their way out and all of them were slightly anxious about the weather and breaking trail to get back to the trailhead. one of them asked us if we were going to go out skiing in those conditions. say what? 10 inches of fresh pow pow, no sign of it stopping, and you're wondering if i'm gonna go out in it? ummm , yeah, i think we'll give it a shot. so yeah, it snowed all day and into the next night. i think the total was about 15 inches of sweet sweet powder. the avy danger was up a notch but we treaded that line (its always a calculated risk in the bc, no matter what) successfully. i lost track of how many runs we did. never did the same line twice - too many sweet options. i hardly took any pictures (visibilty was bad, kept the camera in my back pack so's to protect it, and we were moving almost all day) but i got a couple. we skiied from 8 until 4 in the steep and deep stuff. i was sooo tired that after the last run i barely made it back up to the hut. one of those real good tired's, ya know? dwight fixed us mac and cheese, spinach/chicken/feta sausage, and split pea soup. and we polished off the makers mark. had the hut to ourselves. spoke at lenght about bike racing (dwight is a super strong masters rider out here in co. super strong) our jobs, politics, our families. it was a great conversation. purdy good.

dwight, doing the "happy happy pow pow" dance at the bottom of the first run of the day

last climb of the day ... back to the hut. it snowed like that the whole time we were out.

me, on the porch of the hut at the end of the day. silly self portrait. cashed.

snow piled up outside my windoe. folks, that ain't no drift. fo' real yo.

day 5:
last day. slept in (sort of, 7 a.m. get up). partly 'cause i was tired, and partly 'cause i was in no hurry to see the end of this trip. we ate a big breakfast, packed up the packs for the haul out (12 miles today), cleaned up the hut, and headed out. skins off, buckled in for the first 4 mile leg - a descent down to the road we had skiied to get into uncle buds. it was fun skiing in the trees but hard with a heavy pack on .... throws your weight all willy nilly. once on the road it was a straightforward 8 mile kick-n-glide to the car. warm. sunny. and a little depressing. saw a snowmobile on the way out and that was the first machine i had seen/heard since we headed out. time slows down on trips like this. you acheive this simple pattern of sleep/eat/ski/eat/sleep for a few days and there's nothing else to consider or worry about. its said to have to let that go ... anyway we were at the truck at about noon. drove into leadville where i got a mighty tasty focacia/mozzerella/tomato sandwich, a bottle of squirt, and a kit kat. goddamn that was a good lunch. goddamn that was good trip.

already planning next years outting ....

skiing out from skinner hut - day 5 a.m.