Sangree M. Froelicher Backcountry Skiing Hut Trip, Leadville, Colorado
Spring has arrived, which for Mike and I means it’s time for some hut trips in Colorado. Our first planned trip this spring was to the Sangree M. Froelicher Hut outside of Leadville. We’d never been to this hut before so we were excited to check it out for two nights.
We parked at the hut’s parking lot off of highway 91 in the early afternoon on the first day of our trip. There were signs in the parking lot that pointed in the direction to go to get to the hut. We then followed the blue diamonds that were on the trees as markers of the trail that leads to the hut. A fair amount of private property was crossed in the first mile so we made sure to stay on trail. Just over one mile from the trailhead, we came to an intersection where we turned left and began to follow a different drainage up to the hut. The trail contoured around the drainage and after ~2 more miles, we found ourselves at the hut. In total, it was just over 3 miles and about 1500 ft of elevation gain to get to the hut.
Once we arrived, we picked beds upstairs and settled in. All of the beds for sleeping are upstairs where there are two private rooms (one with 3 beds and another with 4 beds) and then a main room that sleeps everyone else. We debated going out for a short ski that afternoon, but ultimately hanging out by the fire and catching up with folks as they arrived won out and we never made it back out that day. After a taco dinner, we all headed to bed.
The next morning, we woke up and were ready to do some skiing. Because of conditions, we decided to check out the steeper trees near the hut. We found some pretty good snow. We ended up doing 4 laps in this area and never found ourselves skiing over old tracks, which was nice. After a full day of skiing, we headed back to the hut to dry off and warm up. Tacos were on the menu again. We had a great night catching up with some new and old friends and headed to bed. The following morning was pretty uneventful and involved chopping some firewood, cleaning up the hut, and heading back to the car.
Overall, it was a great few days. It’s hard to complain about a trip filled with laughs, skiing, and friends. It was a trip that reminded me of my saying that I should never say no if I get invited on a hut trip.
Stats to the hut from the trailhead: 3.0 miles, 1500 ft of elevation gain
