Jan 31 - Feb 3, 2003, Belvedere Hut, CO

A week ago Friday with rain to too many thousand ft elev in the Cascades, my brother called to ask me to fill a gap in his group trip to Belvedere Hut in the 10th Mtn Division system, a few miles N of Leadville. It's a 2 hour ski in, from ~10,000 at TH up to 11,600' at tree line, with great tele ski and touring on open rolling terrain above with several rounded peaks to about 12,200'. Weather was springlike, day temps to about 35F, with no new snow for at least 2 wks and very low snow levels for CO in their 5th yr of drought. Variable snow in the open areas, windpacked and hard one second and deep and soft the next, some of it blowing around. But it was dry! Sugary under a thin breakable crust or no crust. Fun to ski, despite the whining of the Colorado natives missing their deep fresh powder. The trail through the forest was somewhat icy on the way up, and really icy, with rocks, on the way down. A few hours after leaving on Sunday after noon, a good storm moved in, and conditions are probably perfect right now. The "huts" are luxurious chalets by NW standards, and this group had great cooking, singing and story telling skiers.
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