The trip leaders will meet you at either airport, and provide transportation to our staging point in Eagle, Colorado. (you can also drive there yourself if you are located in the US, and wish to take this option) Participants will meet with the organizers and guides late in the afternoon. the meeting will be in the lobby of our comfortable motel to go over trip, safety plans, and gear, and answer any questions you might have before our departure. On the final day of our trip, we should be back at the trail head around lunch time or a little later, and back in Denver around 6:00 p.m. However, due to the uncertainties of mountain weather at this time of year, it probably would be best to plan your departure for the next day.
If you have the time, arriving a day or two early to begin your acclimatization process also would be smart. This trip is strenuous by virtue of the fact that we will start at an elevation of 9,000 feet and our destination is over 11,000 feet; if you are from an elevation lower than 6,000 feet you may find it painful to arrive and climb the next day! More information can be found in the Difficulty, Health and Trip Price sections below.
Day 1: Arrival at DIA or Eagle County Airport. Plan your arrival no later than noon at Denver International Airport. We will schedule one departure, in a van driven by your Denver area co-leaders, arriving in Eagle around 3:00 p.m. If you plan to fly into Eagle County Airport, please plan your arrival no later than 3 p.m. You will be met by your Durango trip leader for our rendezvous with other trip members and co-leaders at a comfortable Eagle motel. Upon arrival we will check into our rooms and then meet in the lobby where we will go over trip plans and answer any questions you may have. This will also give us an opportunity to do a last minute gear check and review our safety plan. Afterwards we will continue conversations over dinner. Overnight Motel.
Day 2: Eagle, CO to trail head to Polar Star Inn. After an early breakfast at the motel, we will board our vehicles for the 15-mile drive to the trail head. We want to get an early start because we have a long, strenuous day ahead of us. From the parking area elevation of 9,000 feet, we must climb about 2,000 feet over a distance of six miles to reach our destination, Polar Star Inn. If you are on skis, you will want to bring climbing skins. Wax or fish scale bottoms on cross-country skis probably won't get you up this mountain. Please don't go cheap on equipment. Overnight Polar Star Inn.
Days 4-6: Day Trips Around Polar Star Inn. The town of Fulford or as it was known in the late 1800's, Nolan's Camp, is about half way between the Yeoman's Park trail head and Polar Star Inn. In some publications it is called a ghost town, but over the years, many of the buildings have been reconstructed or remodeled as summer homes. However, there are some residents who spend the winter, but the only access is via snow-cat, snowmobile, or skis. This is one of the possible destinations for the day. Access is via forest and logging roads, or skiers may ski through the aspens and spruce down to the town. Return is via the same forest roads. There are also numerous forest and logging roads around the area that make for easy day trips on snow shoes or cross country skis. For those with Telemark or AT ski gear, or snow boards, there are gentle to challenging slopes within easy access to Polar Star Inn. We will have the opportunity to explore in small groups some of the breathtaking backcountry that surrounds us. Overnight Polar Star Inn.
Day 7: Polar Star Inn to Eagle/DIA and Home. This morning we will pack up for the descent back to our vehicles. Skiers and boarders can take the road or ski through the trees, but our snow shoers will probably want to take the road. At any rate, it is six miles mostly down hill now, giving up the 2,000 feet we gained on the first day. We should be back at the parking area around lunch time. We will have lunch and depart, those that came in the van headed for DIA, and those who came into Eagle, back there. For those headed for Eagle, we should be there by 3 or 4 p.m., for those going to Denver we will probably be there by 6 p.m. However, due to the uncertainties of mountain weather, it might be best to plan an overnight stay in Denver and your departure for the following day.
Check out booking details for the Mountain Hut Trip in Holy Cross, Colorado
How to Get There
Meals and Lodgings
From dinner on Saturday, January 9 through lunch on Friday, January 15, all meals, including snacks are provided. If you have special dietary needs, please let your trip leaders know well in advance. We can accommodate most requests as long as we have sufficient warning. On our first day, food for the trip will be divided between trip members for the climb to the hut, but cooking gear, including all kitchen pots and pans, serving utensils, plates, cups, forks, spoons, and knives, i.e., all necessary kitchen gear, are provided at the hut.
The Polar Star Inn accommodates up to 17 people, in a number of semi-private rooms and one common sleeping area. The only sleeping gear you will need is your sleeping bag. Mattresses and pillows are provided. Sierra Club trips are based on double occupancy, but the nature of the hut is such that you may not have a private room. Accommodations in Eagle, on our first night, will be in double rooms. If you want a single room, please advise us early so we can make the necessary arrangements. Otherwise, singles will be paired up to share the double rooms.
Duties in the hut will be divided to details and scheduled at the beginning of the trip. In addition to breakfast, dinner and kitchen clean up details (lunch will be on your own from materials provided), we will have wood detail (responsibility to split firewood, which is provided, for the cooking and heating stoves), water detail (collect snow to melt for water), and hut cleaning detail (to keep the area swept up and in order while we are there). We will all pitch in to clean the hut up before we leave so that it is clean as it was when we arrived.
Health: There will be no trip physician, but your trip leaders have advanced wilderness medical training. Our group will carry emergency medical supplies, but we do not carry medications; you must bring a basic, personal first-aid kit and whatever personal medications you need. Your reservation confirmation packet contains a medical form that must be filled out and submitted to your leaders before you are accepted on the trip. When completing the medical form, realize that your safety – and the group's – depends on candid responses. If you ever have had altitude related illness, or you never have been to altitude, please consult with your personal physician regarding altitude issues. Due to the altitude at which our trip spends 5 days, if you can arrive a day or two early to help your body acclimatize, you will be much more comfortable on our trip.
This trip is intended for skiers on Telemark or alpine touring (AT) gear, cross-country skiers, snow boarders, or snow shoers. This is not an instructional trip so you should feel competent on your chosen gear. If you want to rent gear, we should have time to hit the rental shops in Eagle. Skiers will want climbing skins for their skis; if you are a cross-country skier, wax or fish-scale bottoms will not be adequate for our initial climb. Temperatures around this time of year range from freezing to 15 or 20 below zero, and if windy, the wind-chill will be even colder, so bring layers (no cotton) that allow you to accommodate that range of temperatures while resting or exercising. You will want a pack (around 45-55L) that can hold whatever clothing you bring, your sleeping bag, a personal first aid kit, toiletries, other personal gear, and has room for your share of the food that we will be carrying. If you have your own avalanche beacon, shovel, and probe pole, you might want to bring them, but complete avalanche safety gear will be provided for trip members. A detailed equipment list will be provided to registered trip members.
- White River National Forest
- Holy Cross Wilderness Area
- 10th Mountain Division Hut Association
- Litz, Brian, Colorado Hut to Hut: Northern and Central Regions
- Shelton, Peter, Climb to Conquer: The Untold Story of WWII's 10th Mountain Division Ski Troops
- Black, Dave, Living Off the Grid: A Simple Guide to Creating and Maintaining a Self-Reliant Supply of Energy, Water, Shelter, and More
Conservation
Our carbon footprint is becoming a huge issue as global climate changes progress. Everything we do contributes CO2 to the atmosphere, some things more than others. Even coming on this trip adds more greenhouse gases than would be the case if we stayed home, but what can we do to ameliorate our impacts and not totally disrupt our lives? For those of you flying, consider buying carbon offsets from Native Energy (see http://www.sierraclub.org/outings/national/offsets/); we are providing van transportation in order to cut down on the number of separate vehicle trips, and those of you driving yourselves, consider car-pooling (your leaders will coordinate a list on request). Other major contributors of greenhouse gases are the coal-fired power plants that provide energy to our electrical grid. A solution advocated to reduce greenhouse gases has been to live "off the grid". Here is your opportunity to try it out! While staying at Polar Star Inn, heat is provided by wood stoves, cooking is with wood and propane, and lights are propane. Of course, all of these contribute CO2 to the atmosphere, but possibly less (and certainly without the sulfur and mercury contaminants found in coal) than from a large, coal-fired power plant. At other 10th Mountain Division Huts, photo-voltaics provide low-voltage electricity for lights. Each evening we'll be covering topics including climate change, impact on habitat and wildlife and we'll take the time to discuss these and other environmental topics. Participants will learn about conservation actions already taken by Sierra Club, plans for the future and how they might participate. And finally, our stay will give us the opportunity to contemplate what it means to live off the grid.
Check out booking details for the Mountain Hut Trip in Holy Cross, Colorado
More about this trip;
There is hardly anyone who has not heard of the 10th Mountain Division,the elite mountaineering troops who trained for three years at Camp Hale, midway between Leadville and Minturn, Colorado on Highway 24, before being committed to battle in World War II with the Allied invasion of Italy, and the fierce battles waged in the mountains of Europe.Their training camp was in some of the highest and most beautiful,rugged mountain country in the continental United States. As an attestation to that remoteness and beauty, the White River National Forest, where Camp Hale was located, and the neighboring Arapaho and Pike National Forests host four Wilderness Areas, the Hunter Fryingpan, the Mt.Massive, the Holy Cross, and the Gore.
The 10th Mountain Division Hut Association, and the huts that comprise it, were built by former 10th Mountain Division members, their family and friends, beginning in 1980. Six of the huts were built by family to honor soldiers lost in the Italian campaigns. The huts, of which there are now 29 either owned by or owned privately and managed by the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association, are located roughly in a U-shape from Eagle, Colorado on the north and west to Vail on the north and east, with the bottom of the U at Leadville. All of the huts are truly "high altitude", with most at or above 11,000 feet. As a result of their altitude and remoteness, all are "off the grid" meaning they rely on wood or propane for heating and cooking, low-voltage, solar photo-voltaic systems for electric lights, or in some cases,propane gas lighting, and none are connected to the electrical grid.
The Sierra Club's hut, the Polar Star Inn, is located at an altitude of 11,040 feet with access from the Yeoman Park trail head at 9,060 feet, about 15 miles from Eagle on a plowed, Forest Service Road. It is on the western side of the Holy Cross Wilderness Area, and northwest of New York Mountain (12,550 feet). The name "Polar Star" refers to a mine that was to the north of the site of the hut at an altitude of 11,260 feet and active in the late 1870's and 80's. While the six miles from the trail head to the hut is a strenuous climb, once there, the opportunity to explore numerous forest and logging roads, and the relative safety of the surrounding terrain, make it an ideal location to spend five days exploring this backcountry winter wonderland.
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