[Journal entry for March 13-15, 2011; Jay’s Cabin and Shrine Mountain]. Dallas and I accompanied a group of Colorado School of Mines students, including our daughter Hannah, on a three-day backcountry ski trip to Shrine Mountain in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The trip was guided by Bryan and Casey, from the Outdoor Recreation Center. Light snow was falling as we arrived at the parking lot at Vail Pass, along Interstate 70 west of Frisco, Colorado, and about six inches of powder had accumulated overnight. We donned our telemark skis and backpacks, turned on our avalanche beacons, and performed a test to make sure that everyone’s was working. We then headed up a trail that followed the eastern side of the valley of West Tenmile Creek. This valley, perhaps a half-mile wide, is now a smooth snow field, with trees growing only on its edges. Quite a few people were skiing out, including many with children in covered sleds with plastic windows. This was my first hike using telemark skis and skins – fabric strips with one-way hairs affixed to the bottom of the skis. I found them easy to use, though I did not think that they performed better than snowshoes. The snow gradually tapered off, allowing us to see the neighboring hills and mountains. The temperature was in the mid thirties, Fahrenheit. After about two and a half miles of gradual uphill ascent, we reached the head of the valley and crossed over to the west side. We climbed a short trail through spruce woods and reached Jay’s Cabin.

Jay’s Cabin (named after Jay Utter, who purchased the land) is a very sturdy, multi-floor log cabin, one of three that compose the Shrine Mountain Inn, run by the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association. Its elevation is about 11,200 feet. We unloaded on its deck, a wooden platform that commands a great view of the mountains to our southeast (including the Copper ski area). We then relaxed for an hour or so, eating lunch and drinking hot chocolate in the hut’s common room. We then geared up again and went on a short trip in which we practiced an avalanche rescue. We skied through sparsely wooded hillsides from which we could see the summit area of Shrine Mountain. It has several large tor of reddish brown rock near its summit, as well as a cliff with a substantial cornice. Our guides, in secret, had trampled out a section of snow on a hillside to simulate an avalanche and buried a backpack with a beacon in it. Our job was to find it and dig it out. We used our own beacons, switched to locator mode, to find a spot on the snow close to the buried backpack, and then long medal poles (like tent poles) to probe down and find it. We then used the short-handled shovels we had brought to dig it out. Hannah and my group succeeded in about 7 minutes, which was judged to be a very good time (buried people are said to be able to survive up to a half hour). Nevertheless, we have a lot to learn in terms of organization, for we did not quite get the sequence of steps right, did not utilize our personnel well, and wound up burying a few of our own items in the snow (though we later found them). We then took off of our skins and did a bit of skiing. It took me a while to get the hang of skiing powder, and I fell several times before learning the technique to turn. Afterward Hannah and I rested on the show at the bottom of the ski run, while a Canada jay came over to investigate. These very opportunistic birds are always looking for scraps and handouts. The afternoon was drawing to a close, and the snow fields were crossed by the long-shadows of solitary trees, making them especially beautiful. After the rest of our group finished up, we put our skins back on and headed back to the hut.

I amused myself (and the other members of our party) by making a pair of hut sandals out of strips of cardboard and duct tape. We made a dinner of beef and couscous, flavored with onion and green pepper. The cabin is very posh compared with the AMC huts of New Hampshire that I’m used to, like Zealand Falls and Carter Notch. Jay’s has running water, flush toilets and some sort of central heating that supplemented the wood fire. We sat around chatting as the sun slowly set, lighting up the mountains a brilliant pink. The night was clear, with a moon. I opted to sleep outside on the deck, so I would see the sky and enjoy the crisp air. The night was uneventful; I heard no animals or birds. The temperature dropped to about zero, Fahrenheit, just before dawn, and some clouds moved in. A band around the horizon turned pink, but the sun itself was hidden behind the clouds. We ate a breakfast of pancakes, with butter and blueberry jelly.

We then geared up and headed to the south bowl of Shrine Mountain to do some backcountry skiing. The ridge of Shrine Mountain reaches an elevation of 11,888 feet, and we had climb most of the way up to reach the bowl. The trail is only a mile and a half long, and the elevation gain only 650 feet, yet I found the going tough for the air is so thin. The trail rises diagonally through the wooded section of the ridge, and is in places particularly picturesque. We passed a cornice near the crest of the ridge, and detoured around it, staying in a wooded section where the avalanche danger was less. Our guides explained that we must avoid terrain traps, little hollows that could fill up with snow should an avalanche occur. We then skied north up the crest of the ridge, passing close to one of the tor, until a point just below the summit. Here we took off our packs and made a base camp. We then skied down the south bowl, a sparsely wooded and not particularly steep section of hillside covered with undisturbed powder. The elevation drop was about 450 feet, short compared to one of the runs in a resort like Keystone. I took it without finesse, but managed a few sweeping turns and was pleased that I did not fall. Unlike a resort, there was no lift service. We had to boot-it back up the hill, carrying our skis and poles. We all walked in each other’s footsteps, making somewhat of a stair case. I found the going tough, but eventually regained the ridge. The day was sunny and warm, so we relaxed and ate our lunch and admired the views that can be found only in the high country: the rolling, snow covered hills below us; the peaks and bowls of the high mountains in the distance. Some of our party dug couches in the snow for comfort, but Hannah and I just lay on the surface of the snow using our rain shells as beach towels. I took one more run down the bowl, which was a lot of fun. Hiking back up was a bit easier the second time, both because the staircase had further solidified and because I did a better job pacing myself, so that I did not run out of breath. Back at lower elevations, I would not have found a 450 foot ascent more than a minor huff. Nor did it really tax my muscles here, just my wind. Hannah took a total of three runs. Some of the more energetic members of our party took ten. At the end of our stay we took a group photo, posed with high peaks on the skyline. We then skied back to Jay’s Cabin. We skied one challenging section down a steep snow field, and then followed the trail, which was easier, the rest of the way. The descent only took a few minutes and was quite exhilarating.

Back at the Cabin, we made a dinner of spaghetti with marinara sauce spiced up with onions, peppers and pieces of salami. We sat around talking until about 9:30 PM, and then turned in. Light snow had begun to fall, so I slept inside. The morning was sunny and the snow-dusted trees around the hut were very pretty. We gain cooked pancakes for breakfast, and then cleaned up the cabin, packed up and headed out. We skied back without skins. About half of it was steep enough to glide; the rest we just shuffled along. We reached the parking lot in less than an hour.

We all stopped at the Chipolte Mexican Grille in Silverthorne for a snack and then said goodbye to the other members of out party.