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February 19-25, 2009
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Hut-to-hut heaven
Backcountry cabins offer rugged respite
by Dave Philipps
Delivery done right
New service delivers rental ski gear right to your door
by Pete Zimowsky
 Hut-to-hut heaven
Backcountry cabins offer rugged respite
by Dave Philipps
It almost feels like cheating,” Scott Patterson said.
He had just snowshoed five miles to a remote ridge on the edge of the Frying Pan Wilderness near Aspen. He was wet and a little tired.
It was late afternoon. Long, purple shadows pouring from the snowy peaks flooded the valleys below. Snow clung to the trees and stood at least three feet deep on the ground. The temperature, near freezing all day, was now on its way toward the single digits.
A few steps ahead, smoke wisped from the chimney of one of the 10th Mountain Hut Association’s cozy backcountry cabins.
“This is really nice,” Patterson said.
He was part of a small group of friends snowshoeing from hut to hut through the 10th Mountain Huts system on a three-day trip. It was his first foray to the huts, and he was quickly learning that a tour to a different hut each night is a plush way to see a lot of the backcountry in winter without breaking your back.
Patterson and his wife, Kim, love to backpack, but they work highway construction, so summers are busy (60-hour work weeks). They end up doing most of their trips in the snowy months.
“When I’m winter camping I have to carry, like, 90 pounds. There’s a big tent, a big sleeping bag. I like it, but it’s a lot of work,” he said.
The huts make it easy — at least relatively. Skiers and snowshoers still have to huff and puff into the backcountry, but instead of struggling to pitch a tent in five feet of snow, they step into an inviting log cabin warmed by wood stoves, with a kitchen and comfortable, if basic, bunks.
On the hut trip, Patterson cut his 90-pound pack to about 35 pounds. His wife’s was even less. He leaned over to her once they stepped inside and said, “I’m worried I’m going to spoil you.”
The 10th Mountain Hut system is made up of 29 backcountry cabins connected by 350 miles of trails. The cabins, which cost $28 to $31 per person per night and sleep about 14 people, are prized for their mix of seclusion, scenery and superlative backcountry skiing. Peak winter weekends fill up a year in advance.
The huts are open in summer, though they’re not nearly as popular then.
“It’s just the right mix of roughing it,” said Linda Jagger, former president of the Pikes Peak chapter of the Colorado Mountain Club, who organized the trip. “The huts have everything you need and nothing else.”
After resting a night at McNamara Hut, the group planned to hike eight miles down through a steep valley and up to the next ridge to the north, where Margy’s Hut waited.
Then the next morning, they’d head seven miles to a distant trailhead.
“It’s really a good way to go,” Jagger said. “You get a lot of scenery going hut to hut without killing yourself.”
String of shelter
The 10th Mountain Huts were designed for long tours from one hut to the next, though few people use them for that.
The necklace of cabins strung along the snow-white neck of the Continental Divide was the dream of a 10th Mountain ski trooper named Fritz Benedict, who moved to Aspen after World War II.
“He had skied the Haute Route in the Alps, which has a series of hostels, and wanted to do the same thing here,” said the nonprofit hut system’s director, Ben Dodge. “His original vision was a string of huts connecting Aspen to Edwards.”
The U.S. Forest Service, where all the huts are, didn’t share that dream. The agency was reluctant to have privately managed huts on public land. It took the lobbying of fellow Aspen resident and backcountry ski aficionado Robert McNamara to get things rolling.
McNamara is best known as the secretary of defense in the lead-up to the Vietnam War.
He was able to convince the Forest Service to allow the system, then paid for the first two huts himself: McNamara Hut and Margy’s Hut (named for his wife) opened in 1981.
A string of huts stretching north to Edwards was completed by 1985. Since then, others have been added, generally a daylong ski apart, around Vail, Leadville and Summit County.
Most people ski to a single hut and spend a night or two, but it’s possible to ski from Aspen to Copper Mountain, staying in almost a dozen huts along the way.
“It’s really an amazing thing,” said Scott Messina, the field operations director for the huts. “You can go fast and light and just see some amazing country.”
Payoff for hard hike
At McNamara Hut, Jagger cooked pasta for the crew of snowshoers, while another snowshoer dressed a fresh salad with carrots and dried cranberries. After dinner some played Scrabble while others lounged by the fire, reading and talking.
Compare that with winter camping, where it is often too cold in the tent to do anything but watch your breath, and you start to see the appeal.
There is something about having a hut waiting at the end of a hard day that makes a hike seem easier. Without the ordeal of setting up camp, melting snow in a tiny stove and devising ways to keep your boots from freezing overnight, you are free to appreciate the journey.
When the party finally reached Margy’s Hut, one snowshoer tossed her pack on the sunny deck and simply said, “Hallelujah!”
The Pattersons pushed through the woods a few minutes later and threw their packs down on the deck. In a matter of moments, they were sipping Gatorade by the wood stove in dry socks.
“Would you do another hut trip?” Scott Patterson asked.
“Oh, yeah,” his wife said.
“Would you do another winter camping trip?”
She smiled.
“Probably not after this.”
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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Delivery done right
New service delivers rental ski gear right to your door
by Pete Zimowsky
They deliver pizza to your hotel door, why not skis?
There’s a new service available that’s like a ski and snowboard shop on wheels.
Going to Aspen, Sun Valley or Breckenridge, and don’t want to take your gear? Have rental gear delivered.
The service is Door 2 Door (www.d2dskis.com) by Christy Sports. The company delivers rental equipment to guests at their convenience. Vans are stocked with inventory to cover any equipment shortfalls or additional requests.
You can reserve equipment online or by calling Door 2 Door and requesting a delivery time and location.
Door 2 Door will deliver the equipment to the desired location at a specific time. Its staff will spend time with the customer to make sure the boots are comfortable and the bindings are set.
Door 2 Door also offers a Kids Rent Free program to its customers.
The rental delivery service is available at most of the major resorts throughout the Rocky Mountains and also includes in-store support from any Christy Sports location.
—MCT
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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