I had been looking forward to spending time in Colorado in the winter so I could go skiing, snowshoeing and winter hiking, but one thing I really had on my list was doing a winter hut trip. Tracy and I put that high on our list of things to do this winter. I am learning to telemark ski and have been several times. We have been snowshoeing and hikng several times and, in the end of January, I did my first hut trip. We went to a hut in the 10th Mountain Hut system called Polar Star. Tracy said it wasn't one of the nicer huts, but since I don't know the difference yet it was great to me. Hut is a bit of an understatement. Even cabin sells it a bit short. It sleeps 17 and has a large kitchen and eating area complete with wood and propane stoves. Since we went during the week, we only had to share it with 4 other guys who turned out to be great hut-mates with real good food which they willingly shared. Though we certainly didn't go hungry with all the food we brought. The only thing we wished we had brought was another bottle of wine!
The ski in was tough. You're really not skiing, but "skinning" up the trail. (With backcountry skiing, you can use either telemark or randonee, aka AT skis, with climbing skins attached to the bottom.) And I do mean up. The trail gained 2000 ft. in elevation in 6 miles. We got a late start so we didn't stop a whole lot and my legs were about to fall off when it was getting to be about 4PM. I thought we still had a little ways to go, but since Tracy had been there before she knew we'd see the hut any minute. So she slyly let me go first and, sure enough, around the next bend there was the hut. I don't think I could've gone another 1/2 mile so I was real happy. The next day we skinned further up the mountain with our hutmates and climbed up a ridge. We decided that was high enough and it was time for me to make my first backcountry turns on telemark skis. It was also time for me to make my first backcountry faceplants, but amazingly enough I actually did manage to make some real telemark turns. The open area was shortlived as we headed back into the trees. Which meant going back to snowplowing a lot and occasionally trying to do a real turn.
The first two days had been perfect, beautiful blue-sky days and the temps were in the mid- to upper-20s. Not bad for the mountains. The second night we got a minor blizzard. It only dumped about 4-6" of new snow, but it was enough to give us fresh trackless powder to ski out on. It started out in the low teens, but by the time we were well on our way out, things warmed up real nice. I'd highly recommend it to anyone, but I would also recommend being in pretty good shape. I wished I had been in better shape, but I survived and had a great time in the process. Here are some pictures, but to see them all you can go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/23798449@N04/sets/
