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| The crew gearing up at the trailhead |
I have to say that sometimes these trailhead parking lots are hard to find! Angel and I remembered Frying Pan Road from past trips, but that didn’t prevent us from driving back and forth along the dirt path a few times, scanning our eyes for the little blue sign that indicated a 10th Mountain Division Hut parking lot. Finally, we found it!
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| Angel and I enjoying our skin in |
The hike in was a lot easier than it has been in past years. Overall, it was 7 miles in but only like 1800 feet in elevation gain. Angel was getting used to her skis and I don’t mind sitting in the back, so she and I were close to the back of the group. We ended up skinning in together, so that’s why it looks like I was on the trip with only her! There was a pretty steep hill at the very beginning, but once we made it up and over that, we had reached Marmot Flats. The Flats are a 2-3 mile section of relatively flat terrain. After this, you climb up and over another easy hill, and then there was a 2 mile downhill section which rocked on skis.
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| The hike in was beautiful |
Unfortunately, there is one last super-steep 1/4 mile section right before the hut so I had to take the time to stop and put my skins back on my skis. If I had thought about it, I probably would have just boot packed that last section. Oh well!
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| Finally, the hut! |