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.

20120204Saturday Feb 4 Edwards Colorado

In the morning I opened my parcel of ski binding repair bits from Burnt Mountain and repaired my broken ski bindings. I was able to build the left binding OK but I could not unscrew the toe piece screws on the right binding. This was not a major problem as the right toe piece itself was not broken and only the mount needed to be replaced. So I kept the new right toe piece as a spare. All went together ok and both skis were completed fixed.

I ventured out at lunchtime onto the lower slopes of the local Arrowhead ski area and gave the new binding a work-out and all proved to successfully operate. I skinned up the first steep slope about 10 times and by the time Steve and Julz arrived with Julz's telemarking friend I was too tired to join them.  My jet-lag cut in and I suddenly felt like sleeping.  So I stayed in the Arrowhead bar and returned with Julz's flat mate, Bob Bailey, back home.

The group stayed of course and skinned up to the top of the Arrowhead ski fields and returned at 7pm in the dark. So I was very wise not to go.

That evening Julz had arrange for Steve and I to attend the local art school exhibition. Steve and I turn-up in our best clothes at 8:30 and pursued to offering that were for sale. The standard was very low and I was only impressed with 1 painting and 1 drawing. There were a number of photography entries and there were some interesting one. Snack food was provided but Julz had already feed us know this was insufficient for our needs.

To our surprise some people in elaborate dressed arrived and they were announces as the "Burlesques and Boylesques" trip-tease group. We were then entertained by this old-fashioned striptease 'artists'. It was amazing for Steve and I as we were under the impression that all US citizens were conservative and this would not be acceptable. The whistle and cat calls for the audience were a testament that this was not so. We had already noticed that many of the sculpture (wood, dolls, ornaments and also cake decoration) had very robust and racy themes. The trip-tease act topped them all. The girls were not thin, lets say they were well endowed. They danced to music with heavy beats and racy lyrics doing all the tradition teasing acts. They reminded me of Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe in their gushing movements and fabric play. A very well built black American got the greatest response from the females in the audience. There male audience were quiet. He was a beautify built man and I could recommend him for our Australian Ku-ring-gai Art School for a model. Remembering that this performance was in the Edwards (Vail) Art School, and that the Troupe were encouraging the Art School to start a group to learn these demonstrated skills, I could also ask them to approach our Australian Ku-ring-gai Art School for the same consideration. I can imaging the response. I must talk to Marie about this idea :)



At the drinks afterwards I showed some of our new friends our local art work and got a very strong response. Maybe I should get our art school to exhibit in Vail - they are all well above this standard. Most were asking from $100 for the smallest work to $890 for the large (a very nicely posed female nude - the only one approaching our standards).

I slept extremely well that night.

20120203Friday Feb 3 LA with Julie H & Arriving Edwards Colorado

The flight across the Pacific was the roughest flight I have had on this route. For more than half the trip the Pilot was continuously telling the cabin crew to go back to their seats and buckle-up. The plane was buffering up and down all the time. I was luckily to have two free seats beside me and got some good sleep. My flight arrived in LA 20 minute late. I was to be met by Julie Kresko's Friend Julie Honadel and it was 11 am before I got through customs and met up with her in the terminal 4 driveway. 

I had already established with Julie H by emails/SMS that I did not want to see the city of LA, as I had seen it many times before, but wanted to get out and see some local scenery. So we headed to Malibu and and on to the Leo Carrillo State Park. 

We passed thought general cityscape and, reaching the coast, the houses became more interesting and the coastal scenery and expanses of beaches were nice to see. We passed the infamous Beachwatch beach (took some photos on the way back).

There was a small car park at the start of the trail and we set out immediately up the trail. Passing through low heath the trail wound it way up to a small hill top. We were on top in about 20 minutes and there we could see beaches to the north and south to Malibu. Generally a very pleasant spot and a much needed stretching of the leg after the long flight. It was a very pleasant and enjoyable break in the trip.

Julie then decided that we should return to Santa Monica, where she lives, and have a Mexican meal at a local restaurant. We had an open taco which was fine but not as good as the Burredo I had a Durango in 2008. The restaurant was very friendly and Julie dropped me back at the Airport in time for my flight.

The Airport security gave me a full body pat-down twice - once in public and once again in a private room.  They searched my cabin bag and I found later they had search my ski bag. I think I'm on their list of suspects as the last time I went though LA we were also privately searched by security and on that time we nearly missed our flight.