10th mountain hut

Alexi's first multi day hut ski tour.Using the charitot sled in tow, we hiked the 6 miles into this pristine cabin in Sawatch range in the Colorado Rockies just outside of Leadville. We were there on the invite of our buddy, the good Dr. Smoak.Dr Smoak is one of those dihard free heel freaks. I guess he loves to be down on his knees....not that both knees at once thing, ....but more like the repeated marriage proposal stance, from one side to the other. With every turn, its "will you marry me, ....or you, ...or how about you, ....or maybe you.." over and over until something gives way.Me, I am too weak-in-the-knees for that kind of stuff. Oh, used to be a loose-healed swinger, but now I am wed to my AT gear. Locked down with my old standbys, they never do me wrong. And we get around together. They get me into places like this cabin. Where I can catch a beautiful sunrise far away from the noise and distractions of civilization.
That photo was made on a cold morning. The thermo was reading -12 F. By mid morning, it warmed up to a balmy zero. A bit nippy for the ski out to the cars. A kind of cold that gets at all exposed extremities. Luck for Alexi, he had his chariot, where he is cocooned in a down-filled, 3-point restraint. He slept the whole way out.

It was a memorable kind of cold and a scary snow pack making us native Wasatch Range skiers a little frightened. Why just the other day, Alexi was reminiscing about the trip (in between chomping on his sunglass lenses):"Yep, I tell ya, the kind of cold to shatter the nozzle on your camelback."

"And a snowpack like fried icecream. A foot or so of fresh, on 6 inches of hard, crunchy compaction suspended dangerously on 2 feet of faceted crystaline TG hoarfrost. Why that stuff would have been very precarious if the pack had gone isothermal"

(--yea, whatever he said.)