Bull Moose in Our Yard / Colorado

A Month in the Colorado Mountains

Rocky Mountains / Moose

Backcountry Snowboard / Ski Trip to a Cabin in Colorado Mountains with a Stop-off in The Snowy Mountains of Wyoming

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First day on the snow in the mountains on our snowboards was up in Wyoming at a resort in the Snowy Mountain Range. Good chance to get acclimated to the altitude and get the snowboard legs going.

 Two good days in Wyoming with a moonlight night to cap it off.

160 Mile Drive to Our Destination in Colorado

 This backcountry trip was human powered with snowshoes and snowboards. It was 3 days at over 11,000 feet in a cabin, carry everything we would need on our back. 

 Back at the cabin after a very good day of slaying the powder on our snowboards and skis.

The view from the deck on the cabin, a few natural avalanches on the mountains. Found powder without getting into the avalanche terrain.

Good day in the mountains!!

Montana & Utah Avalanche Fatalities / January 21 & 24, 2016 / Snowmobile / Skier

http://www.flatheadavalanche.org/sites/default/files/20160124_swedecreekavalaccidentreport_final.pdf


This is a very good report that helps one understand a bit more of what happens in the moments right after things go terribly wrong. This is a second avalanche and report that happened in Utah. Both valuable sources of info. RIP and condolences to all involved. Be careful out there in the mountains...


 https://utahavalanchecenter.org/avalanches/26182

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Photo from my trip to Colorado this week, the view from our backcountry cabin. Notice the natural slide on the slope. These are east facing slopes which are the wind loaded aspects. Storm a few days ago with big winds loaded the east facing mountain.

This is a link to the Colorado / USA Avalanche site that is also a link on my blog site. Check it out.

 http://avalanche.state.co.us/accidents/us/

I am using this information for myself as a learning tool. We just returned home after a trip into the backcountry mountains of Colorado. We encountered slope situations and I like the fact that we quickly discuss our next move. One can not be correct 100% of the time...but you better be correct in each decision that you are making at that present time so you can come back alive.  

10th Mountain Hut Trip / Colorado / Heading Home / Day 3

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I took one last look back and the hut was looking good with the snowfall.

 A stop for quick lunch and then Weez puts the hammer down out front breaking trail.

Semis chaining up after the Tunnel at the top of the mountain pass.

"On The Road Again" 1025 miles to get back home. Left Wednesday night in a snowstorm and drove through the night. Pulled over to a wayside rest area at 3:00am and got 3 hours sleep...Got rolling again and pushed through the final 650 miles.

Drive on!!

10th Mountain Hut / Colorado Backcountry / Snowboarding Snowshoing and Skiing / Day 2

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Homestake Peak @ 13,200 ft, blanketed with a foot of fresh snow. A good storm with 60-70 mph winds dropped a foot of snow overnight.

 At the cabin, the cabin sits at 11,300ft.

The kitchen is well equipped with pots, pans and dinnerware. We have propane for cooking, water is the snow melted in the pot on the wood burning stove. That is an important task that everybody pitches in to keep filled. With the water we need to use it for drinking, cooking and washing dishes. The pot has a spigot so filling a water bottle is easy enough, at this altitude we are drinking water frequently.

 Great views out the windows in the common room. The outhouse is a short stroll away. During the night of the storm it is a trip out with the shovel to keep the walkway open.

 Blanket of powder made the mountains spectacular. It is a blast to break trail through the fresh snow.

 Crossing some of the slopes requires just one at a time for safety.

 The 3 guys preparing to drop down off the ridge line we were crossing.

A description of how this turned out from Weez..."Beautiful day today 12 inches new snow, ascended a 3 hour hike ridge line, decided to descend. Well let just say ran into a 200 foot cliff band very sketchy situation lots of inprov. Made it back safe ahh..."

The guys ended the desent with a slide down a 30 fott rock face. We tried a route to the north, with some sketchy snowboarding along the top of the cliff band. there was no room for error. We came to a dead-end. So our decision was to backtrack out. It required snowshoing back up some of the rock faces. The snow was sketchy and it took about 45 minutes to cover 20 yards. We were able to gain the top of the ridge and then it was a matter of backtracking our trail from earlier.   

 This was a good experience of keeping together in 2 groups and coming up with a solution to our predicament. Everybody got back to the cabin safe and in one piece...and we had a story to tell. 

 I decided to hike back up the rock face we had snowboarded on the day before to finish the day. Got one last run for the day. Another full day with good scenery and adventure...and good company. It was good to get back to the cabin for our last night. Food, drink and a bit of card playing. We had the cabin to ourselves, the 5 of us...until about 9:00pm when Dan spied a headlamp out in the darkness while looking out the window.

Turned out that a young fellow from the Breckenridge area decided to ski up to the cabin for 2 days. He got off work and drove up to the trailhead where we had parked, about 4.5 miles down the mountain. He was familiar with the trail and made a night approach. Impressive...interesting fellow, Weez and I sat up till the middle of the night chatting with him. This was a good day!

 The 10th Mountain Hut.

 The guys stayed an additional night so they skied out in the morning and climbed the ridge to the north of the cabin.

Yours Truly, just before the snowshoe down off the mountain back to the truck at the trailhead. It was good, with more snow falling. Three days and two nights make an adventure to remember.

Adventure on!!

10th Mountain Hut Trip 2015 / Colorado Backcountry / Snowboarding Snowshoing and Skiing / Day 1

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The band of adventurers fresh for the slog up to the 10th Mountain Hut west of Leadville, Colorado. Me, Weez, Dan, JT, and Shawn, posing before the 4.5 mile journey. Weez and I are up at the cabin for 3 days and 2 nights, the others are up for 4 days and 3 nights.

 We must pack our food, clothes and sleeping bags for the time up in the mountains. The cabin sits at 11,300 ft and it is surrounded by a mountain ridge that reaches up to over 13,000 ft.

 Shawn and Dan shouldering the hefty backcountry packs.

JT and Weez rocking up the trail...

Keeping the legs moving and taking short 10-15 second breaks are the key for me to maintaining a steady pace at this altitude of over 10,000 ft.

 After several punchy climbs and a short lunch break we gained the open meadows that would bring us to the cabin.

 Gaining the view of Homestake Peak is awesome and we know that we are approaching our cabin for the next few days.

 Snowshoing and packing the snowboards...Weez and Yours Truly, MJ.

 A short break in the cabin for a quick lunch and unpack a few supplies. Then it was out to get a few turns on a rock face that I had played around on last year.

 Gotta hike up to get the turns in.

 The snow started and Weez got her first turns in the backcountry this year. Looking good!

 Shawn was next to feel the turns, good to get out for a bit before dark.

 One more hike up the face and make the most of the daylight. The snow was starting and we would end up with about 10 - 11 inches of powder with some good winds to move the fresh snow around overnight .

 Stayed up late and checked on the new snow during the night, the winds were really ripping off the mountains.

It was a very good first day and night at the 10 Mountain Hut!!

Board on!