Hut Trip report: Day Two

This is a four-part post about backcountry hut skiing in Colorado. To read the previous post in this series, click here.

Ted in the entryway of our luxurious "hut"

After a well earned rest, Saturday morning saw us groggily taking stock of our surroundings in our aptly named hut, the Polar Star Inn. The morning light revealed what we did not see in our exhausted states the night before: A running spring just steps from the front door (no more melting snow!), a cornucopia of toilet paper, and the staggering (literally) amount of alcohol we had carried in on our backs. My friend Tim had done an admirable job of coordinating food and supplies for our trip, but when it came to libations, ... he left us on our own. What did that get us? About nine litres of hard liquor, along with the equivalent of twenty bottles of wine....in bags.
As some of the group set to taking care of our overabundance of drinks, five of us set out to lay down the first tracks above the hut. Our plan was to run day trips based out of our hut. We were situated on western flank of New York Mountain, not far below the treeline at 11,040'. Taking advantage of an existing track, we laid down a skin highway (skinning is a term that refers to using removable 'skins' on the bottom of one's skis to enable uphill travel. When the top is reached, the skins are pulled off, and presto!, one is downhill skiing on terrain that one couldn't have reached otherwise). Up we skinned through prime tree-skiing territory, reaching the wide-open face below the mountain's ridgeline.

Mike and Tim lead the way on our skin track

We skirted along one edge of the face, eventually gaining the ridgeline. There we dug a snowpit to assess avalanche conditions. In the midst of this process, we were joined by a sixth: Mark, our resident ski patroller and avy expert.

Tim supervises while Mike checks out the snowpit

After much examination and an impromptu class on slip planes, we determined the slope to be skiable. That's when the fun began.

Mark's grin says it all; Check out our tracks in the background!

Two laps of wide open slope skiing on untouched snow had everyone ecstatic. But the trees broadcast their siren song. As the rest of our little group headed back up the ridgeline, Mark and I dove into the forest.
That's when we discovered that some of the best trees I've skied in my life were directly outside our doorstep.

The top of the tree run. Can you see how deep the powder was?

Mark and I had the privilege of skiing perfect, deep, oh-my-god-this-is-good powder through silent pines. I oozed through corners, floating on miraculous condensed cloudform. Cries of joy involuntarily escaped our mouths. Soon the rest of the crew joined us, and we shared the unending powder.

Back in the hut, Miguel and Rochelle were hard at work on one of the best meals I've ever had. That night we were treated to melt-in-your-mouth lamb with rice, in an intriguing, savory but sweet spice mix. Yum! And after supper? Well, we had all that bourbon...