After several years of snowy outings to various 10th Mountain Division Huts, as well as many failed lottery attempts, I was finally able to snag a few prime spots at the coveted Ben Eiseman Hut; nestled in the Gore Range above Vail, Colorado. Although most of the crew had to bail last minute due to injury, illness, or gear issues (surrree, likely stories, boys…), my buddies Paul and Jack rallied, the weather cooperated, and we managed to score a few wonderful days of powder skiing and top-tier lounging high above the Vail Valley.

The approach to the hut was quite heinous — 7 miles & 3.5k ft of mostly frozen skin-track was one of the less exciting ways to kick-off a hut trip… but why dwell on the past! We arrived at the hut just in time to catch the sunset, enjoy a couple beers, meet the rest of the hut’s tenants, and settle in. Thanks for the delicious bolognese, Hank!

Waking up on Saturday morning, Paul and I set out in search of steep, north-facing terrain that we figured would deliver the goods.

After a bit of traversing, scrambling, and blind trust in “I think its actually the next ridge…” (assisted by plenty of Caltopo & FatMap sleuthing, naturally) — we arrived at the intended zone and had an absolute party!

This was a super playful ridge with seemingly endless, untracked skiing options. Steep faces, tight trees, committing couloirs — what more can a boy ask for!? The skiing was so fun that we lapped 4 different lines, each somehow better than the one before.

Meanwhile back at the hut, Jack had arrived following a Saturday morning start — we made sure (like the good friends we are) to fill him in on all the fun he had missed out on.

On Sunday morning, our eyes turned to Bald Mountain. The other party at the hut had skied the north-facing bowl off Bald on Saturday and reveled us with tales of cold powder & fast-skiing — we had no choice but to confirm their reports. After exchanging some beta & completing our clean-up duties, we descended towards Middle Creek with our gear in tow.

Arriving in the creek’s basin, we stashed our extra gear and started the climb up towards Bald. Fortunately, our new friends had set a primo skin-track that we had no trouble finding. We topped out on our intended line and ate a quick snack while we waited for a sunny window.

We were, in fact, able to corroborate Saturday’s report — the skiing was indeed epic! Jack and I arched some graceful turns down the bowl’s shoulder while Paul nuked a more direct line down the gut; good skiing all around!

We wiggled our way back to the gear stash and begrudgingly began the slough back to the car. The March sun beat down, the hot pow globbed to our skins, and we had more than a few skin-skiing related face-plants… but that’s just the price of admission!