In a previous blog, I described preparing for a trip to the Benedict huts above Aspen, Colorado. After over eight hours of skinning uphill in the snow and two hours snowboarding back down, we are all back home, and I’ve finally cleaned all the pistachios and cookie crumbs out of my car. And yes, it took me eight hours to reach the hut.
I’ve been on numerous hut trips in the Colorado Rockies year after year, and it’s safe to say the trek to the Benedict huts (there are two: Fritz and Fabi) is the most challenging, mentally, physically and emotionally. The winter trail descriptions on the 10th Mountain Division Huts Association website did provide some insight into navigating the route. However, we found the descriptions of elevation gains and mileage to be quite different from the route we took: a winter trail marked by blue diamonds and arrows (a pretty standard trail marking practice).
Even following the appropriate trail markers, there is a crossroads where, looking at a map, we could see that the recommended Smugglers Mountain Road trail was significantly longer than the 10th Mountain trail we decided to take. And even after having taken the shorter route, we hiked about two miles farther than the trail directions had described. Having started at Upper Hunter Creek trailhead, we’d expected to arrive in 4.8 miles, but had long passed 6.
The trail description listed an elevation gain of 2130′, but by the time we reached the hut, we’d gained over 2300′. This isn’t a gradual incline, either. It is important for anyone setting out on this trail to know that you will be climbing the grade of a ski hill the entire way.
Our team came from the Colorado high country and San Francisco. We are all fit, athletic and experienced in various kinds of outdoor recreation. After collecting the San Francisco constituency from the Denver airport, we made a point of allowing a full day to acclimate in Frisco, Colorado, at 9000 ft. Blood oxygen levels were quite normal for people coming from sea level, averaging around 90%. Those concerned about nausea and headaches started taking Diamox, and we all made sure to drink plenty of water and prioritize sleep before setting out on the trail the following day.
By the time we arrived at the hut, it was 8 pm, and the sun had just dipped below the mountains. Sore and sunburned in spite of multiple reapplications of sunscreen, the rest of our evening was devoted to self-care, recovery, and refueling. All the food we had painstakingly carried up was certainly worth it. Our epic journey up the mountain had been fueled by nuts, energy bars, stroop waffles, chocolate chip cookies, and a lot of water. So we immediately got to work lighting up fires to melt snow for our water filtering systems and cooking a hearty sausage and tomato pasta.
We were sure to feed every craving for calories, because we weren’t about to pack it all back down after what we’d just been through to get it up there. Although I’d planned to do some snowboarding, the following day was mostly dedicated to resting, eating, reading, and games. Frittata with bacon, shiitake mushrooms, manchego and peppers (and of course, pancakes) for breakfast; the aforementioned epic sandwiches for lunch, and loco moco’s for dinner. Plenty of chocolate, cookies, coffee, beer and bourbon to close the calorie gap. And constant water intake. I refused nothing.
Hut trips require considerable effort, not only for the traverse and recreation outdoors while you’re in residence, but also for basic necessities. With no running water, snow must be collected in the winter to be melted over a fire you have to build, then boiled and/or poured through a filtering system. There is typically a large supply of wood for these fires on hand, but for less-maintained structures, gathering and chopping wood will also claim a lot of calories.
Recovery on a hut trip must be efficient in order for you to enjoy your time there while also preparing for the trek back out. Stretching, hydrating, feeding your cells nutrients, and sleep are what it’s all about. While the rest seem simple enough, choosing foods to replenish your supply of nutrients and treat any ailments or injuries you may have may take some more thought. As I mentioned in the previous blog on Packing for a Spring Hut Trip, the intense physical challenge of these trips requires energy your body can quickly convert from sugars and caffeine, which make chocolate and coffee easy options. For the time I can give my body to rest and recuperate, I want to feed it denser meals with better nutrient-to-calorie ratios, and this is where I look for proteins and carbohydrates that will take my body a longer time to process.
My body will use all these nutrients (including fats) even as I sleep as it repairs and replenishes itself. The extremity of long exposure to the elements stresses your brain as well as the rest of your body, and well-hydrated sleep is one of the best things you can do for it.
Alcohol, as you know, dehydrates the body. But a hut trip without beer and whiskey is not something I’ve ever heard of, so I make sure I continue to hydrate with plenty of water as well. The sugar from alcohol, however, may contribute to your store of energy the following day, but there is definitely a threshold where the amount of consumption contributes more to a disabling hangover. I continue to do more research on the matter.
Being so sore the first night, I was a little concerned about being able to move the rest of the trip. As much as I wanted to just lie down, I know stretching is just as vital to healing muscle mass after strenuous activity, and the combination of ample hydration, nutrient intake and stretching gave our bodies the resources to maximize the time we did spend napping and sleeping the next day. I did manage to get out on my split-board for a mini-tour around the site in the afternoon before dinner the second night, but it hadn’t snowed in the area in a while, and the snowpack was very hard after so many days of warm Spring weather.
The hut sits at the top of the mountain we ascended, so the terrain immediately around it doesn’t get much higher. The area is also pretty heavily wooded in all directions, so building a kicker to snowboard off of was out of the question. The party in the Fabi hut next door invited us to some skiing just a 3-mile hike along a ridge away, but none of us felt like adding 6 more miles to what we’d already trekked.
I am glad I made a point of skiing around the hut, though. It was a great way to get my blood and breath moving around my body with fresh nutrients. One of the best parts about going on a hut trip is how efficiently it makes you spend your time. Even time lying down doing nothing is just as valuable as time exercising.
We set back out to the trailhead early Easter morning. Two nights and two unforgettable days later. We didn’t get any new snow, so those of us who weren’t on snowshoes were skiing/snowboarding down hard-pack. Con – crete. A two hour ski run sounds amazing. This was like two hours of squats. With a backpack on. So that happened.
But it sure beat the hike up! In retrospect, I’d say we packed appropriately. We might have had some extra food for the way down, but we were fortunate that the weather was sunny and warm, and that no sort of emergency required extra rations. I was almost too warm between the daytime sun, and the wood stove at night. But again, the weather could have been worse, and I would have needed every single layer I’d brought. Not mad about that. In a word, “harrowing” was mentioned more than once while on the trip. But no one had to carry any beer or bourbon back.
Roberto Santos is from the remote island of Saipan, in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. He has since lived in Japan and the Hawaiian Islands, and has made Colorado his current home, where he is a web developer, musician, avid outdoorsman and prolific reader. When he is not developing applications and graphics, you can find him performing with the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, snowboarding Vail or Keystone, soaking in hot springs, or reading non-fiction at a brewery.
