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 :)