Immersion Research 2010

There is nothing like going on vacation to a place that has no email or cell service. In February, a solid crew from all over the paddling world met up at Tommy Hilleke’s house in Glenwood Springs. We loaded up 40-50 pound packs and headed into the Harry Gates Hut of the 10th Mountain Division Huts in the Sawatch Mountains, 15 miles northeast of Aspen. Our crew included some friends of mine from PA, John Grace and his posse from Asheville, Tommy, his wife and some of their crew from Carbondale.
We had the whole hut to ourselves, and it could not have been a more amazing trip.

The initial push to the hut was quite grueling, but then leveled our to a moderate uphill slog. In all, about 7 miles, with the crew taking about 4 hours to hike in. Pretty much just as you were totally over hiking, you were at the hut, so the timing was great. The snow was perfect, a foot of fresh the night before, on top of bottomless snow. We had the entirety of Burnt Mountain to ourselves for 3 days. Burnt served up endless blower powder runs, with sustained pitches of 30 degrees or more and about 2,000 vertical feet.

The snow pack was also very stable, which took the edge of quite a bit. The approach to the summit was about 1.5 hours total, but you could turn off at any point and get amazing turns. There was one particular pitch we dubbed “The Assault”, as it was particularly steep and unforgiving. The Assault was about 50 minutes into the climb up and took no prisoners!

After a few unbelievably rewarding days, we had one last hike up to the top, followed by an hour plus long descent back to the trailhead! Can’t wait to get back out there next winter.

Roger