Sunday, April 21, 2013
Aspen Hut Trip 2013
Aspen Hut Trip 2013, a set on Flickr.
For my 39th birthday, I took an ambitious three-night hut trip near Aspen with three amazing guys: Kevin (aka Brussel Sprouts); Steve (bff, CU Boulder) and Hill, who I'd never met but discovered also did a NOLS trip in Patagonia the year after me. We are all in our late 30s. All parents of young children. The huts are amazing. Look up 10th Mountain Division Huts. Most people do one or two overnights to one hut, with a day trip to explore in between. We decided to attempt to link three: Benedict Huts, McNamara Hut and Margys Hut, separated by about 8 miles each; and to do it in three nights.
As we got out of the car at the trailhead, we stepped into six inches of mud. The first eighth mile of our hike was bone dry, a peculiar omen. The approach to Benedict was only about 6 miles, but it was all uphill. An early start to the morning and a four-hour drive through snow to the trailhead made us suck wind even more. It was a huge physical challenge, but the reward was a sweet hut made of recycled materials and an outhouse with glass walls overhanging the forest.
The second day was a ski through pristine wilderness, requiring quite a bit of route finding and navigating super steep terrain with cruddy snow underfoot. So cruddy, in fact, that when we headed up the opposing, south-facing wall of Hunter Creek, through an aspen stand/boulder field, we had to take our skis off and hike. Long open meadows interspersed between dense woods, one more traverse across a steep wooded slope and a fast glide through an icy field finished that day's 12-hour hike.
The third day was meant to be easy. Follow the trail. Long but easy. Only problem was that it snowed 10 inches overnight. Breaking trail sucked. Lifting a ski full of wet concrete with every step. We made it to Woody Creek alright, but lost the blazes in Spruce Creek and made some bad navigating decisions, worsened by some malfunctioning gear for one member of our group. At 7 p.m. we were at the top of the wrong gully and a storm was blowing in. We were exhausted and had little chance of making it if we continued to break trail, contouring our way back into the drainage we needed to find.
By design, to save weight, we had no tent and no stove. The decision was made to head back down into the trees where we could build a more sheltered camp in the snow. We dug out a deep pit and built a twiggy fire. We snacked on some dry food (and fortunately had iodine in our emergency kits). As the fire burned low, we got into our sleeping bags with all our clothes on, and the thick liners from our ski boots. We padded ourselves underneath with backpacks, waterproof gear and trash bags. And we drifted off to sleep with snow falling in our faces.
Snow fell all night. I buried myself deep within my bag to keep my face dry. I can't claim it was the greatest night of sleep ever had. But I was warm. We were all warm.
The snow pounded down on us all the final day as we continued our decent back to Woody Creek and out to the car via that drainage (which we had determined to be faster than hiking up to the hut).
Gear failures almost brought us to our knees at that point, but the desire for a cup of coffee, a hot meal and the sight of our kids was enough to motivate us to push through.
We made it out by 10:30 a.m. on the fourth morning, as planned, and ate a somewhat gross but satisfying meal at the only Aspen breakfast joint we could afford/that would let us through the door.
On the drive home, critical roads were closing due to snow and accidents. We discovered that the kids were still in Evergreen with no ride home and two closed passes between us and them. Scott was standing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon with Jami (my sister in law), waiting for Brian (his brother) to cross. As we were bickering over getting kids home, news of the bomb arrived. Fortunately Brian was a fast runner and they were no longer in the area when the bombs went off.
Sawyer brought home the stomach bug, which has run its course through my house, and Duncan has developed a sudden skin irritation that causes him to itch all night.
And, one week later, it hasn't stopped snowing.
39. Humph.
Via Flickr:
Benedict, McNamara, Margys
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