20120214 Colorado-Ski into Benedict's Fritz hut

20120214 Colorado-Ski into Benedict's Fritz hut.


 We left Edwards at 7:10 in heavy snow. The drive on the I70 through Glenwood Canyon was very difficult as large tanker trucks were travelling very fast and we had to be very careful.


At Glenwood Springs we took the 116 exit to join the 82 route  Aspen.  There was a lot of slow traffic and the trip took us 3 hour. 1 hour longer than planned.

We followed the map instructions to the trail head parking area and there was dispute in the group as where the trail started. We had to move the car to the upper trail head and managed to park in one of the 4 allocated spaces. This trail head was at a different location than I had started from on a previous visit hut trip.

It became apparent that none of the local skiers knew where the trail began and I resorted to my memory plus my map and compass.

We started along the trail at 10:37, heading upstream, with Susan's 2 large dogs which made skiing very difficult as they would move back and forth and the trail push us off the track. I quickly moved forward to the front of the group, now 5 plus 2 dogs,  and got ahead to avoid the dogs.

Starting at 8,600' the trail crossed the main Hunter Creek on a solid wooden bridge and we proceeded downstream on the southern bank until we came to a sign post to Smugglers Road. I hesitated here as there was no reference to Benedicts Hut. I got into trouble from the group for indecision. I then saw a blue diamond which confirmed this was the 10 mountain trail. This was the begriming of our 3,100' climb to the huts at 11,700. Deep breath right now!

Here we began to climb and soon crossed the marked minor creek. The trail now became very steep and we continued up the ridge line to meet Smugglers Road at 9,000'.  A slightly easier climb took us to a large clearing on a saddle in the ridge. At this point we joined a road which rose steeply from Aspen (a snowmobile route) and we passed through a style. We  contemplated the signpost map which showed many other roads the no mention of the hut. We took the obvious route up the ridge. At a junction with no signage we met a snow boarder who was returning from the hut and he was able to confirm our route. There was now a clear foot track to follow to the hut.

The trail climbed steeply winding its way up the ridge and presenting us with ever more spectacular views of the mountains south of Aspen. The trail now dropped off the ridge to the north and into a gully. We meet 2 skiers and a snow sho'er who tool us they had left the hut 2 hours ago. We estimated we had 3 hours climbing to go. The trail became extremely steep a I proceeded in a meditative mode. One small automatic step at a time.  Along here we met the final group of skiers from the hut. They had narrow cross-country skis and were not having fun descending this steep trail.

Steve and I continued on in silence finally reaching the top of this long climb at 10,100'. We made a place to have lunch. As we were reading to get going again Julie Peterson caught up with us at this point and she stayed in front of us visual contact for most of the remaining climb.

The trail levelled out at about 2 miles before the huts as it crossed the tops of Smugglers mountain range. It was a big relief to walk the undulations after the main climb. The forest even seemed friendlier as the pine tree sat relaxed and comfortable in the deep snow having no need to cling to a steep hill side.

The climb had been tiring and I was looking forward to the hut coming into sight around the 'next' left-hand turn. I had been closely consulting my map as we had climbed and now it was stuffed in my pocket as I cruised along the undulation hills. Ahead I saw Steve and Julie a a trail junction in close consultation. As I arrived maps were brought out to determine the way to go. The way left was the obvious route - but no! - the map showed a 400' steep climb. I hadn't noticed this minor detail. I was expecting a hut to show itself very soon but now I had to climb 400 ^&*@ feet. Steve and Julie was now ahead and I set my mind to the final climb.

I found the climb very difficult and put it down to the 11,700 altitude. Altitude was sure to make you feel like as old man. I had to control my heart rate carefully. I finally reached the hut and rested in the very comfortable bunks and surroundings. (The next morning I was to discover I had caught the local flue - runny nose and harsh cough - the same cough some of the group hard at Vance's hut a week before).

I found the energy to cook the night's meal with Steve and Tom. Tom's marinated meat was a winner.

We could not help but to be impressed with the construction of this hut. It is certainly the best of the 7 10th Mountain Division hut the I have visited. The external timbers making up the gables supports and the internal mixture of sawn and rough timber in the jointed ceiling were all impressive. The natural round timber poles with short branches kept in place for clothing hooks were surprisingly useful. The rustic kitchen shelf supports. The most surprising structure of all was the external toilet. It was built with two large plain glass windows which looked out to inspiring views of mountain tops framed in pines heavy with snow.   All the work of a very creative builder.

20120209Thursday Feb 9 Ski from Vance cabin back to Tennessee Pass and home to Edwards

20120209Thursday Feb 9 Ski from Vance cabin back to Tennessee Pass and home to Edwards



Morning dawned greeting us with a 5" (12cm) snow fall.  I walked around the Cabin in wonderment at the softness and silence of the scene. The fresh powder snow neatly topping all the surfaces. I dared not to touch them so not to spoil the perfection of the shapes.  The pine trees surrounding the Cabin were filled with snow.

After a quick breakfast we cleared the decking and set off to climb Taylor's Peak ridge to do a second ski down, this time in the fresh powder snow. The Cabin was at 10,980' and the ridge top was 11,725'.

Climbing was not much more difficult that the previous day except that the snow was deeper.  The climbing ski on our skies gripped the fresh snow well and we were at the top in good time. I had been taking a movie of this trip but unfortunately the movie did not record properly and I am still trying to recover it.  Hence the still photos do not tell the whole story..

The ski down was not quiet what Steve and I had hoped for as the power snow was deep amongst the trees and our Australian "sized" ski were not able to float over the fresh powder snow. We sank quickly down into the snow and bogged. In my case this resulted in a number of falls into deep powder snow which proved very difficult to get oneself upright and on the skis again. I could feel the twist in my knee from yesterday and ignored it. I was actually getting a little better skiing the power and felt I was improving over yesterday's skiing.

After ski through the pine we came out on to the clear slopes above the Cabin and this was bliss. We telemarks through deep silky powder to the Cabin. So good was it we climbed back up to the top of the slope and repeated the ski down. This is what we had came for.

Steve and I both resolved to rent wider skis and abandon our "Australian" ski for the remainder of the trip. It was frustrating to watch the others ski through the powder with their wide skis floating on top while we floundered in deep holes.

After lunch in the Cabin we packed our gear and skinned up to the top of the trail. Here we removed our skins from our skis as the way our was mostly downhill.

Ski down on the trail though the pine forests is always magic. The fresh powder snow give us good control as we whizzed along the narrow trail. I passed a large group of school climbing up to the Cabin enthusiastically. Their teacher behind them playing loud music. She assumed me this was to keep them moving along. (I'll have to try this technique with our September group in Oz this year - I'm sure they will be overjoyed).  Negotiating a long powder slope to the Piney Gulch river was a test as our ski buried themselves deep in the powder and I skied forcefully, ie  slowly, down to the river. From here it was a short ski back to the trail head at Cooper's Ski Area at Tennessee Pass.

The drive back to Minturn and on to Edwards was in heavy snow.  Tom's big truck handled the road very well and Tom's competent driving reflected many year of driving in this weather.

20120208Wednesday Feb 8 Ski trips at Vances Cabin

20120208Wednesday Feb 8 Ski trips at Vances Cabin
The next day all groups attempted the climb of Taylors Peak. After switching on our avalanche beacons, we started out about 10:30am at 10,980' and skinned up the cleared field, following the main trail until it turned south. We then proceeded upwards through a steep forested area where there was no track. There was just the impression of previous climbers. The powder snow was about a half metre deep and there were many fallen trees and obsticles. We made good progress athough the 11000' altitude was making me feel like an old man and I began to breath deeply to try and counter the affect. reaching the top of the ridge line at 11,725' we entered an open area with a few remaining clumps of pine trees. The northern side of this ridge was heavily corniced and we stopped well back on the top of the ridge. We had intened to climb Taylors peak and we began to proceed in that direction. We quickly turned back after experiencing the tell-tail booming sound of snow slumping deep below our feet.  We all immediately agreed not to proceed up the mountain. The general avalanche forcast for this area was classified as 'extreme' and we were not prepared to test this.

The other group had already decided to ski down and had gone. We skied back down the slope to the Cabin and the snow became very difficult to control. Steve and my skis were too narrow for the powder snow and we would sink through as we try to turn around trees etc. I had 2 difficult falls and had a lot of trouble getting upright and out of the deep powder snow. On the second fall I pulled a ligament slightly in my right calf mussle area. It did not cause any concern and did not affect my skiing. It was a warning. Skiing down through the trees proved to be very difficult and we were glad to get out into the clearing again. This cleared slope provided a pleasant ski back to the Cabin and we repeated the local ski a number of times.

Snow began to fall in the late afternoon.

That night we had a long conversation with the 2 Denis's.  It has always been surprising to me to hear US folk, who stay in these high huts, talk about their country, its policies and issues. I have found a great deal of agreement in our attitudes and ideas. Not at all like US folk we meet in the towns.

20120207Tuesday Feb 7 Ski from Tennessee Pass to Vance Cabin

20120207Tuesday Feb 7 Ski from  Tennessee Pass to Vance Cabin
Tom arrived at about 10:30am in his big Ford F750 diesel van. It was decked out for going into the back country with a wooden sleeping platform in the back under which we stored all the skis.  Tom's 2 dogs were left at his home as was Julz's big Husky dog Blizzard. Blizzard the only dog I have every had any time for as he has a very warm personality and forlorn eyes, which he uses to advantage.

We were on the roads at 11am and heading east on the I70. At Minturn we turned south passing the start of our previous back country ski a few day before. The distance was about 50kms to the Ski cooper ski area at Tennessee Pass. We had passes through the town of Minturn 4 years ago on our way to Jackal Hut when it had been completely buries in snow. Now the snow was below normal falls and we could see the town as a classical American village. Tom was able to tell us that the folk who live in Minturn were very different to the folk who lived at Vail (say) and recounted a number of stories about Minturn and Leadville. I had been attracted by Leadville's cheap backpacker accommodation and I have now revised any plans to stay there. Julz told a story about a friend of hers who saw a man shoot a women near Camp Hale, the friend reported it to the Leadville police and they were not interested in investigating the murder. A hit-man will charge only $30 to remove a person for you.

We arrived at the Cooper Ski are a little after noon just as the previous Vance Cabin group arrived at their vehicles. We exchanged information about the trail in.  The cooper Ski area is when the original 10th mountain Division Soldiers trained and it was unlike the ski villages on the I70. It was very much a family business and had only a small number of lifts and only a small area to ski. The tickets were much cheaper than Vail prices.

We got our gear on our backs and turn on the avalanche beacon and headed to the trail head. There was a large sign indicating the Vance cabin Trail head and the blue trail markers of the 10th Mountain Division began.  It was about 4kms to Vance Cabin.

We skied down trail through an aspen forest and followed the trail up piney gulch (creek) to a small dam. Here we crossed the creek and followed ski tracks up a clear slope. The slope was reasonably steep and we felt our heavy packs weighing on our should. Soon we entered aspen forests again. The trail wound upward to the top of a spur off Taylors Peak and we turn NE and followed the spur upwards. The trail was not so steep at this point and it slowly turned northwards. The views were restricted by the dense trees and we only got occasional glimpses of distant peaks and snowfields. The trail level and we knew that we were not far from the Cabin.

Quiet suddenly we came out onto a clear area and we were all brought to a stop at the magnificence of the view of high mountain peaks. We were immediately confronted by the 14003-foot Mount of the Holy Cross in the west.  We could see the small Homestake Peak we climbed (to the lower reaches not the top) above the 10th Mountain Hut in 2005. To the north was the Gore range and to the south was the Mt Massive Wilderness with Mount Elbert, the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains of North America, at 14440 feet (4401 m), glimmering above the sheen of Turquoise Lake. After many photograph we skied down a few 100 metres to the hut.

We arrived at the Cabin at about 3pm to find it full of people enjoying the little sun there was on the south verandah of the cabin. They turned out to be a pleasant (although sometimes a little noisy) group. They were all from the restaurant industry and we got on well. We were also to meet 2 other folk, both Denis's, who we were to spend long conversations and also a long card game, over the next 2 days. I have Denis Berry's email address as he is very interested in the ABC podcasts and I want hear his feedback.

Vance Cabin is not quiet the same standard as some of the other 10th Mountain Division hut we have been to (Harry gates, Jackal, 10th Mountain etc) but it did have more character. The roof was a single pitch and covered 3 levels. The  lower bunk room, the mid kitchen lounge area and the upper smaller bunk room. A single slow combustion stove in the lower bunk room provide satisfactory heating. Some negatives were: the upper bunk room was too hot and the lower bunk room lacked ventilation. The kitchen was well stocked and the outside 'restroom' was the usual 10th Mountain Div high standard.

Julz and Tom prepared the main meal of a very tasty open tortilla with a dessert of Tequila jello (Whoe - that was good).

Names of others in the Cabin:
Alex, John, Janet, Caitlin, Jared, --- Denis (Berry) retire IT manager - Boulder Uni, Denis ?, ++

20120206Monday Feb 6 At Edwards preparing for Vance Cabin 3 day trip

Today Steve and I had planned to buy a lift ticket at Beaver Creek and spend the day skiing the downhill slopes. But that did not happen. I woke up fighting fit and completely over jet-lag. The previous day's climb had only invigorated me. But Steve woke up in a mess. His eyes were swollen and his head and nose not working at all. Julz had serious "new boots" problems and need to get them adjusted and tested before our nest hut trip.

I decided that I really should finalise having my stitches removed from my mole wound. I needed to get this done before our next hut trip to prove there were no infection problems. So Julz took Steve and I to the local medical centre and we booked in there for treatment.  I was pleasantly (very!) surprised to find out that this practice did stitches removal for FREE. I asked no questions and accepted the free treatment thankfully (This is the USA - free medical!!).  Steve paid $75 (~$AUD72) which isn't much different to OZ. He was also given free sample packs of anti-histamines and he has slept for the day.

Julz has us booked into a wine tasting tonight and we sampled some very nice wines from Oregon. Again we met the locals and discussed important topics like bike riding.

My main concern was resolved today and Julz got her boots adjusted correctly today in time for our big 3 day trip to Vance Cabin tomorrow. We spent the remainder of the night packing for the trip and organising food.  We will be out of contact for 3 days.

There is new snow supposed to fall today and the avalanche report is not good. The route to the Cabin is on the SW slopes of the range above Tennessee pass and these slopes should be least prone to avalanche dangers.

We tested all our safety beacons tonight and I was very impressed with the performance of my beacon. I will be easily able to find the others!!! Don't worry their beacons are excellent but mine is better - I should give mine to someone else :)

20120205Sunday Feb 5 Minturn hut trip Colorado

Minturn to Grassy Meadows Ski: Google map of route:


We met Tom at 11 am at the beginning if the Line Shack road just north of Minturn township. Tom Cleaveland is to do the Hut trips with us later in the month.




Julz, Tom, Steve, Bill and Bob set out with three dogs to climb to an old Mining hut on top of the divide at Grassy Meadows and ski back. We were to meet up with two other of Julz's ski friends but they had already left as they need to return early.











The trail to Line Shack from end of Line Shack Road. Including Line Shack Road the total trip up was about 8 kms. This road was used by many ski-dos and the was very heavily tracked. In some case these tracks proved to be an advantage as the ski-dos took many shot-cut on their way down and we were able to skin up these and cut-off large turns. On the way we met many people walking in shoe shoes and some climbing with AT bindings and wide power skis. A notable site was a ski-doer with a very young (3-4yrs) child in a ski tri-cycle ski down hill beside him. The child negotiated the very steep and rough slopes on this device admirably. navigation up the road was a little problematic as the road took a very long route and choosing the short-cut route was not always obvious. Steve and I get ahead and missed a short-cut so we missed out meet Julz's other friend who were heading back at this time.


Our chosen route were very steep (but shorter) and it wasn't until we were near the main ridge line that I began to level out (slightly). At this point we met a power snow chaser and discovered he had also watch the Australian Open Tennis and we had a good discussion of the match. He left us skiing off at increasing speed bouncing from side to side on the powder - I need more practice!

A little further on we saw the Cabin up ahead and made directly through the trees to it. The Cabin was positioned just south-east of the crest of the range commanding spectacular views of the mountains around it.  The view of the Gore Range in the north was most impressive with the largest of the craggy peaks dominating the horizon.










From the Cabin, Tom skied back with his 2 dogs along the road we came up, we skied back to the south of the road trying to get away from the ski-dos tracks. We were looking for nice gullies we could telemark turn down. The snow was very silky and excellent to Telemark turn. I would sink into the silk snow and cruise so smoothly around linking into the next turn and carving through the stands Aspen trees.  Unfortunately the snow was a little shallow and occasional submerged objects resulted in deep face plants. These falls were extremely difficult to get up again and I'll have to get better at getting out of these deep falls.











We arrived back at the car park about 4pm and were home in comfortable time.






Julz had arranged a Superbowl party at her house this night. The Superbowl is of course the big football game of the year.  Steve and i had to admit our ignorance and watch with consider comments. We all helped preparing salads etc and we had very conversation with friends we were now meeting again and again at various events around Edwards township.

Everyone had an early night as they are all outdoors folk and have activities to do the next day.