10th Mountain Division Hut Backcountry Ski Trip, Leadville, Colorado
10th Mountain Division Hut with Homestake Peak in the background
I had reserved a few spots at the 10th Mountain Division Hut in Leadville for the middle of April so Mike, Leah, and I headed there for a few days of skiing. We met mid-morning at the trailhead and began the approach in to the hut. Our approach began with some road walking, but we were soon on the trail marked with blue diamonds to get to the hut and were able to put our skis on. Much of the approach is in the trees, so it was a welcome sight when we started to get some views of Homestake Peak.
We found ourselves at the hut in the early afternoon and decided we would go out for a tour. We headed towards Homestake Peak, with the desire to ski the north face. Mike and I had skied the east ridge of Homestake Peak a few years ago, but knew we wanted to come back when avalanche risk was lower so that we could ski the north face. It looked like conditions were lining up and would allow us to ski the north side of the mountain.
Mike dropped in first and said the conditions were pretty good, but got a little more variable towards the bottom. Leah skied next and I (Krista) took up the rear. I would describe conditions as 4” of fresh powder over a very firm sun crust. I wouldn’t have minded a little more new snow to cover that crust, but it skied pretty well overall. Once we all regrouped at the bottom, it was approaching 5pm, and we decided it was time to go make some dinner so we headed back to the hut. Once back at the hut, we cooked up some steaks, couscous, and asparagus and had ourselves a pretty delicious hut meal. After dinner we headed to bed.
The following morning we took our time heading out to ski as it was extremely windy, and we wanted to give the snow some more time to warm up. Not wanting to wait around any longer, we headed out and decided to check out some of the south facing options above the hut. We skinned halfway up one of these south facing lines on very frozen snow. At this point we decided to transition to boots and crampons to ascend the remainder of the line. Once at the top, we knew we had some time to hang out to allow the snow to soften. I explored the ridge, and we discussed skiing a north facing line, but the line was pretty wind affected at the top and without full visibility of the line or an understanding of conditions before we dropped, we decided to just head back down the south face with the hope that it had softened by this time. Unfortunately, it hadn’t softened as much as we’d hoped so we had a pretty crusty run down. Once we got to the bottom we decided to traverse to see another south facing option. It didn’t look like this line would be any softer so we decided to head back to the hut for lunch.
While eating, the clouds rolled in and the wind continued to howl. The snow wasn’t even softening with full sun exposure that morning because of the strong winds, and we knew the clouds really weren’t going to help the situation. The snow around the hut felt like it was re-freezing as the afternoon went on. I’ve learned that it’s normally not worth fighting the weather. So we decided to call it a day and play some dice games. Ramen with some fresh vegetables and chicken was on the menu that night. The following morning we headed back out to the trailhead taking the same route we took to get to the hut.
Stats to get from the trailhead to the hut: 4.4 miles, 1400 ft of elevation gain
