Winter Hut Trip
When invited to go on a Colorado backcountry hut experience to Janet’s Cabin, it only took a minute to respond “Certainly. It sounds like an adventure!” While I’ve been a skier/snowboarder for 40 years and a backpacker for 10, I never put the two together…until now.
Janet’s cabin is one among five owned and operated by Summit Huts Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to maintaining a system of backcountry cabins for use in summer and winter only accessed by foot-trails in Summit County, Colorado. Janet’s cabin, elevation 11,620, opened in 1991 making it first among the hut system. The capacity in winter is 20. We had 15 in our group. There are four rooms upstairs with single and double beds and bunks. Two people we know well and traveled with before on river trips. Three we met before, and the others were friends and family of our friends.
Backcountry skiing requires proper planning and safety. A fun day in the mountains can quickly turn into a life-or-death situation. Even on the best days, mountains are unpredictable and always have the upper hand. When adventuring amongst snowcapped mountains, avalanche training and equipment are a must. Safety gear includes a probe, a beacon, a shovel, and a backpack you can put it in and ride with.
Not only must your backpack be large enough for the avy gear, it must also carry all the other gear needed for trip. The huts are fully stocked with kitchen utensils, solar powered lights, wood burning stove stocked with wood, and a composting toilet with toilet paper, but bedding, food, and water are not supplied. Each person is responsible for bringing in enough bedding, clothing, food, and (non-water) drinks to last through a five-night trip. While the cabin does not have running water, there is a method for obtaining drinking water to avoid having to carry it as well. More on that story later. Our Hyperlite and Osprey packs worked perfectly for getting all our gear to the cabin and to carry our avy gear when on excursions.
Getting there is an adventure via Copper Mountain and the Colorado Trail totaling 5.5 miles. During the Winter, Janet’s Cabin is primarily accessed via the Copper Mountain Ski Area by either riding the lifts and exiting out one of the backcountry gates or by skiing up from the bottom of the ski area and exiting out the backcountry gate. Getting on and off of ski lifts with fat, 50lb packs was an adventure in itself.
Getting 15 people in a cabin to fluidly operate as a team is a challenge even if you’ve done it before. There is no running water; not in the kitchen nor the bathrooms. And, there are no showers. For drinking water (coffee, cooking, etc.), a 55-gallon bin had to be taken outside and filled with snow. The snow was then scooped into a large pot on the wood burning stove. The pot had a nozzle on the bottom of it to drain when the snow was melted. We poured the water into a bagged filtration system. We filled pitchers with water for coffee, drinking, and cooking. It was a constant process that required a team-effort.
Once there at our basecamp, the days were full of excursions, warm-ups, great food, card games and reading.
