Little Lightning
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
President's weekend we did not do a ski trip but a hut trip to the top of Boreas pass (approx. 11,500 ft) near Breckenridge.
Our local ski club rented a hut called Section House https://www.huts.org/hut_details/section_house_hut_details.html
We travelled 6.5 miles on snowshoes on a road that is not used in the winter. We had to pack in all our gear including food and water. The climb was slow but beautiful. Fortunately, it hadn't snowed for a few days and the group before us packed down the part of the trail that hadn't been used. There were a few day skiers and snowmobilers on the trail.
Besides being slow, I'm not used to snowshoeing with a 25 lb pack on my back, my only mishap was a broken hiking pole. My poles are collapsible and one of the locking mechanism had broken. A very kind skier on his was down was able to fix it with duct tape. It was a good thing because when I finally made it to the top the wind was brutal. I felt like the scene in the movie Dr. Zhivago where he left the army and trekked across the tundra in the howling wind and snow. I only had a few feet to go but it seemed like hours! My total travel time up was 5:35 including time to fix my hiking pole. We spent the weekend at the hut and left on Monday. Travel down in the wind was pretty brutal until we got to the tree line. It was a sunny day but cold. It took 3:45 to get down. I was pretty zonked Mon evening and am still recovering.
We had a wood burning stove for heat downstairs and a small gas stove upstairs. To get to the outhouse we had to climb over a 7 ft drift, hiking poles helped here and I wore all the warm clothes I had. The wind was blowing so hard at times that snow would drift in on top of me. The door had to be tightly closed or snow would drift inside. Sunday morning my Significant Other had to clean 4" of snow off the toilet seat plus shovel out 6 ft drift. We had gas burners for cooking and melted snow for drinking water. Most of the time the windows were frosted, another reminder of Dr. Zhivago. My sleeping bag kept me warm and cozy at night as it was 50-60 degrees in our bedroom.
Sunday was the worst day, the winds howled all day, at times you couldn't see out the windows. That night the temps outside at 8 pm was -7 and we estimated the winds to be 50-60 + mph. The wind howled all night keeping most of us awake.
It was quite an experience, one that I would do again.
Sorry, no pictures because it was just too cold and windy!
Our local ski club rented a hut called Section House https://www.huts.org/hut_details/section_house_hut_details.html
We travelled 6.5 miles on snowshoes on a road that is not used in the winter. We had to pack in all our gear including food and water. The climb was slow but beautiful. Fortunately, it hadn't snowed for a few days and the group before us packed down the part of the trail that hadn't been used. There were a few day skiers and snowmobilers on the trail.
Besides being slow, I'm not used to snowshoeing with a 25 lb pack on my back, my only mishap was a broken hiking pole. My poles are collapsible and one of the locking mechanism had broken. A very kind skier on his was down was able to fix it with duct tape. It was a good thing because when I finally made it to the top the wind was brutal. I felt like the scene in the movie Dr. Zhivago where he left the army and trekked across the tundra in the howling wind and snow. I only had a few feet to go but it seemed like hours! My total travel time up was 5:35 including time to fix my hiking pole. We spent the weekend at the hut and left on Monday. Travel down in the wind was pretty brutal until we got to the tree line. It was a sunny day but cold. It took 3:45 to get down. I was pretty zonked Mon evening and am still recovering.
We had a wood burning stove for heat downstairs and a small gas stove upstairs. To get to the outhouse we had to climb over a 7 ft drift, hiking poles helped here and I wore all the warm clothes I had. The wind was blowing so hard at times that snow would drift in on top of me. The door had to be tightly closed or snow would drift inside. Sunday morning my Significant Other had to clean 4" of snow off the toilet seat plus shovel out 6 ft drift. We had gas burners for cooking and melted snow for drinking water. Most of the time the windows were frosted, another reminder of Dr. Zhivago. My sleeping bag kept me warm and cozy at night as it was 50-60 degrees in our bedroom.
Sunday was the worst day, the winds howled all day, at times you couldn't see out the windows. That night the temps outside at 8 pm was -7 and we estimated the winds to be 50-60 + mph. The wind howled all night keeping most of us awake.
It was quite an experience, one that I would do again.
Sorry, no pictures because it was just too cold and windy!
