Hut Trip

One of Scott's clients introduced Scott to the Colorado Hut System. She is 70 yrs old and has visited every hut in the CO System. Scott of course decided that she would be our guide and lead us up the Cross Country trail to the 10th Mtn. Division Hut. I really should have gone online before hand to see how things worked and what the "huts" looked like because I had severe anxiety before we left on the trip. Having Mom come out made it a lot better because I knew the girls were in Heaven having her at our house! We left in the morning and it took about 2 hrs to get the the trailhead. I haven't cross country skied before so it took me awhile to get in the groove, but it only took me about 5 seconds to learn how tough it is! It is especially hard when you have to break trail through fresh new powder. You stay warm working hard on the trail, but get cold super fast if you stop. We stopped for lunch and if I did it again I would only snack and never stop for an extended period of time because it is so hard to warm back up. It was really cold and our camelback and all our water bottles froze. For the last part of the trail we had to put skins on to climb up and that was the tough part, but I really love anything that is a climb and actually enjoyed that part. When Scott said "theres the hut" I got a nervous feeling and looked up only to see a beautiful cabin!! It was no hut at all!

Here we are skiing up.
Looking out from the hut.
The hut (aka cabin)
Inside the hut

Each hut holds so many people and you can reserve how many spots you want. So when we got up there, there were 7 military men that were staying up there as well. Hey, it worked out great because the cabin stove was burning and clean water was boiled. It ended up being a great opportunity to meet some new people.

You can read more about the hut system here:

http://www.huts.org/

If I ever do go back, Summer or Winter I would like to try this hut out:

http://www.huts.org/The_Huts/shrine.html

The hut system is actually really interesting and a fun way to see the backcountry. Skiing down was a challenge to get with my backpack throwing me forward and to the side, but I finally got in a better groove and we got down in about 1.5 hrs.

Thanks Mom :) Love you!