Winter 2000/2001

Letter from Peter Looram, 10th Mountain Director

The 10th Mountain board of directors recently held a retreat to review the past and to ponder the future. One of the reasons for the meeting was 10th Mountain's changing role from building huts to managing a largely complete system at a time when the U.S. Forest Service is facing pressures that did not exist when the original master plan for the hut system was proposed. My letter reflects 10th Mountain's changing responsibilities.

Last spring 10th Mountain was approached by Future Generations, a not-for-profit involved in helping small communities and in preserving the environment in China and elsewhere, to help them develop a hut system in Tibet. Some years earlier, Future Generations had been instrumental in developing the Qomolangma National Nature Preserve (QNNP), a park the size of the state of Massachusetts bounded to the south by the Himalayan chain and the border between Tibet and Nepal. Now they want to help create a hut system from Dingri to the west of Lhasa to the Rongbuk monastery at the north base of Everest.

10th Mountain sent Jarod Trow, head of field operations, and supported a team of architects from Teague Architects of Aspen, who graciously donated their time. One of the architects had even helped build a hotel in Nepal. The group spent three weeks assessing the possibility and concluded that a system of five huts at an elevation of 15,000 to 16,500' on the Tibetan plateau would be feasible. The proposal was submitted and soon accepted in record time by the Chinese authorities.

Over the summer, Benba La, one of the heads of the QNNP came to Aspen to work as an intern at 10th Mountain to study our system. Harry Teague's team developed a generic hut design that would fit all the sites with little modification. It is a "U" shaped building with a gate that encloses an interior courtyard. The design provides security, protection from the regular winds, and allows overflow camping in the courtyard. Local materials will be used except when the building's efficiency can be increased with insulation, double glass windows, and solar or wind power electric generation.

The local communities are so excited by the project that they are already collecting stones to build the foundations and walls. However, fund-raising efforts are still ongoing and financial support is being sought. Each hut is expected to cost about $50,000. Those interested in supporting the effort should contact me. 10th Mountain will continue to provide expertise as the system develops. I would not even be surprised to see a Chinese Tibetan learning to take reservations as a trainee at 10th Mountain in the near future.

In October the board of directors held a retreat to review where 10th Mountain had come over the last 10 years and to look at strategies for the future of the organization. Being well facilitated, the disciplined group covered much ground before the day was over. A number of goals were identified:

• The maintenance of the financial health of 10th Mountain and the balance of keeping the huts in top shape and continuing to make the hut experience affordable;
• The promotion of mountain stewardship and an "ethic of restraint" by continuing to be ecologically sensitive; emphasizing non-motorized use; and aligning with other like-minded organizations;
• Enhancing of self-sufficiency and appreciation of the natural environment among hut users by expanding tools for trip preparation, educational experiences at the huts, and by promoting professional exchange among hut systems. Three task forces were established that correspond to these goals:
• A finance group will review fees in light of financial projections that include longer-term hut maintenance costs and possible endowment support;
• A stewardship group will review environmental issues, Forest Service management plans, address capacity issues, the purchase of private in-holdings near huts with the help of public funds, and vegetation surrounding the huts.
• An education group will collaborate with current backcountry education groups to develop, educational tools (video, website, hut libraries, newsletter, media) and will host a conference that brings together other hut organizations.

These groups will work over the next 6 months to develop concrete plans. If you have any thoughts please share them with us. I believe that we have had a good relationship with our hut users for almost twenty years. It is vital that that continue and if possible, improve.

Finally, I want to ask for your help. Both the Backcountry Skiers Alliance (BSA) and the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, (CAIC) work hard to protect the interests and safety of our users. The battle for skier's rights to a quiet backcountry experience never ends. From sitting on the board of both the BSA and the Vail Pass Task Force, I know this only too well. Please donate to the BSA. The successful compromises they forge in the Rocky Mountains will probably be models the Forest Service will follow elsewhere in the west. Because of the cold dry winter weather more avalanche deaths occur in Colorado than in any other state. It's a risk that every backcountry skier faces. CAIC goes along way towards making those risks manageable. Its twice-daily weather and avalanche reports are excellent, as are its educational seminars. In a word, get involved. Please give generously. Both organizations operate on very lean budgets. With more money they can be considerably more effective. With less, they may cease operating. That would be a sad loss for all of us.

Best wishes for fine hut trips in 2001.

Peter Looram . Executive Director

News from the Braun Huts

The Alfred Braun Hut System is in the middle of a five-year hut renovation plan, with improvements at the Barnard Hut on Richmond Ridge as our most recent project. This past summer, the Barnard Hut was completely redone. The old roof was replaced and covers a full 12 inches of insulation.The interior was gutted and rebuilt with aspen tongue and groove siding and recycled pine flooring. The old aluminum windows (very cold) were replaced with insulated glass. The south side of the hut was opened up with picture windows and the deck was replaced. The wood storage was moved to a wood room on the same level as the hut, so no more digging under the hut for firewood. There is also a new Al Beyer-signature freestanding outhouse, connected to the hut via a short walkway; the hut still accommodates eight people, and is available on a four-person minimum basis.

In keeping with the Braun Hut tradition, this renovation has not changed the basic simple nature or concept of the Barnard Hut, it just made it warm, light and cozy. The new Barnard, the Tagert, and Green Wilson Huts are far from the iceboxes of the past. Primarily Lost Trail Logworks and volunteers accomplished the work, with support from the 10th Mountain crew, and financial support from the Environment Foundation of the Aspen Skiing Company, relatives of the Barnard family, 10th Mountain Division Hut Association and many others.

The renovations are expensive (roughly $70,000 per hut) but well worth it. The fund-raising is ongoing. In order to continue this renovation program, we sincerely need your generous support. Fully tax-deductible donations can be sent to the Alfred Braun Hut System, P.O. Box 7937, Aspen, Colorado 81612.

The per person hut fees for the Tagert, Green Wilson, and Barnard huts have been raised to $25.00 per night.A small part of the fee increase pays for rebuilding the huts. Most of the increase goes to offset the constantly increasing costs of running a hut system. The fees remain $17.50 per person per night at the Goodwin-Green, Markley, and Lindley huts.

New Dawson guidebook - Braun Huts, Friends Hut

Dawson's Guide to Colorado Backcountry Skiing is the long awaited new book from well known ski mountaineer and author Lou Dawson. The new guide is amazingly detailed, with terrific maps and annotated photos showing the terrain around the huts. If you're traveling to the Braun Huts or Friends Hut, this is your book! What's more, the new guide covers dozens of backcountry ski, snowboard and snowshoe routes near Aspen, Carbondale, and Glenwood Springs. For more information, see the author's website.

Welcome

 
Kestrel Hanson is a Colorado native who has recently moved to Aspen. After a year in Spain she began her college education at CU Boulder where she earned a degree in Environmental Studies. Kestrel also studied Ecopsychology at the Naropa Institute. During college she worked for the Colorado Outward Bound School. Currently she spends her summers in the Tetons guiding for Exum Mountain Guides. Kestrel enjoys climbing (she says that she has spent more money on climbing than education), skiing, travel, and spending time with her high energy friends.We welcome Kestrel to 10th Mountain and look forward to working with her this winter.

Busy Summer at the Huts

Considerably more work than usual was done at the huts this summer, largely because we were able to get good contractors to work who usually prefer to work in town. Beyond the annual thorough cleaning, restocking of firewood and supplies, and minor repairs, a number of the huts were renovated. Below is a list of the projects, many of which, as usual, could not have been done without the help of volunteers.

 
Almost all the propane systems were modified. The thermocouplers that were connected to the solar system were removed and replaced with safety timers and valves. This will allow the gas stoves to work even if the electricity is shut down. Also, the small tanks were replaced with larger, 100-gallon tanks, and most were covered with a roof and enclosed where appropriate. Also, grates in front of the entry doors were added at many of the huts.

Below is a list of the huts where work was done:

Benedict Huts . The cisterns that collect water from the roof through gutters were drained and cleaned and the hand pumps at the sinks were repaired. More revegetation was done around the huts.

McNamara Hut . All of the siding was replaced where necessary; all of the windows (including flashing and trim), the front door, the front decking, the kitchen door, the dining table and chairs, the lighting fixtures, and the woodroom floor were replaced. Broken or small roof screws were replaced. Backrests were built against the south facing windows. Cooking and eating supplies were replaced.

Margy's Hut . All of the windows (including flashing and trim), the front door, the kitchen door, the chinking between the exterior logs, the light fixtures, the woodroom floor, the dining tables and benches, and the stairs to the outhouse were replaced. The roof was repaired. Cooking and eating supplies were also replaced.

Harry Gates Hut . The wood burning cookstove and all of the eating and cooking supplies were replaced.

Peter Estin Hut . The grey water grease trap and lines were replaced, as were all cooking and eating supplies.

Betty Bear Hut . We replaced the siding, battens, and flashing. We also replaced the grey-water system, the cook stove hearth, the kitchen floor, and the entry door. A bench was added in the kitchen and a door and walls were built downstairs. The railing posts and railing were repaired or replaced.

Skinner Hut . We replaced the outhouse (architect Michael Thompson generously donated his time in designing one that will work well in the high prevailing winds), the asphalt shingle roof (with metal), the heat stove, the hearths underneath both stoves, the plumbing under both sinks, and the dining tables and benches.

Fowler/Hilliard Hut . The large cracks on the exterior logs were caulked and the heat stove was replaced.

Eiseman Hut . We built steps around the gate near the hut.

10th Mountain Division Hut . We replaced the wood room window, the cookstove, and the bricks underneath the stoves.

Jackal Hut . We repaired the railing.

Maintaining twelve heavily used huts at high altitude is a big job. Structural Associates, a construction firm in Glenwood Springs that built the Benedict Huts, will monitor each hut and do the major work necessary in a professional manner at a very reasonable price. 10th Mountain is very appreciative of their large commitment.

News from the Colorado backcountry

By Kim Hedberg . Director, Backcountry Skier Alliance

The Backcountry Skiers Alliance (BSA) is working diligently to get more public lands designated for non-motorized travel. We are working with land managers from the US Forest Service and motorized users to segregate user groups such that everyone can enjoy their experience. Currently, we continue our work with the Vail Pass Task Force and in Steamboat with the Hahn's Peak Ranger District. Buffalo Pass is our target in that area this year, and we will continue our educational outreach on Rabbit Ears Pass. We are also considering working on Wolf Creek Pass before conflicts rise to heated levels. As you are probably aware, the White River National Forest comment period is over. The recommended alternative (Alternative D) represents the first time the US forest Service has restricted snowmobile use in non-wilderness areas. When the plan comes out next year, there will be another chance for the public to comment on the travel Management Plan. We will keep you informed so that your voice may be heard.

The listing of the lynx as an endangered species may affect motorized and non-motorized corridors of the Colorado backcountry. The Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife will be doing extensive lynx studies this year. More information will be provided as it comes in.

A national group, formed in February 2000 to broaden the human-powered message, is pushing forward quickly. Now called the Backcountry SnowSports Alliance, the group has hired an Executive Director who starts in November 2000. For more information, please check the backcountryalliance.org website.

We at Backcountry Skiers Alliance are always open to suggestions and comments, so please do not hesitate to contact us if you have ideas or advice or would like to help out. Contact us at P.O. Box 3067, Eldorado Springs, CO 80025; telephone: 303/494-5266 or fax: 303/499-5045; or via e-mail at bsa@backcountryalliance.org.

High School students volunteer at Warren Lakes

This August, a dozen high school students from around the country spent two weeks working to restore the Warren Lakes wetland area near the Benedict Huts. The students were volunteers with a national service organization, Landmark Volunteers, and were hosted by the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES).

Warren Lakes was originally a high elevation wetland area, considered to be biologically significant due to the relative scarcity of such ecotypes in the Rocky Mountain region. Human alteration of the wetlands began in the late 1880's when a lake with a dam was developed to farm trout. The area was further damaged by peat bog mining operations that took place from the 1930's through the early 1960's. After only a few years of operation the peat developers took their backers' money and went to Las Vegas in hopes of doubling it. Instead, they lost nearly all of the money, and eventually abandoned the operation.

Though little commercial peat was produced from the area, significant impacts on the landscape remain. Peat production required that large dams be built to form lakes, which were subsequently drained through a system of ditches in order to harvest the peat. Today, much of the area is dry due to this drainage system. Additionally, a processing plant was built on-site, remnants of which were used in the construction of the Benedict Huts. The restoration work involved building small, dam-like structures of peat filled geotextile material (referred to as "burritos" by the workers). By blocking the drainage ditches with these burritos, the water level was able to rise up-stream from the dams, returning moisture to the area. This was hard work and the volunteers rose to the challenge! Hundreds of heavy buckets of peat were hauled from the historic processing site to the ditches where the students got muddy and grimy building the burritos.

The days of hard work provided by the students were the essential first step in the restoration of this unique area. ACES and the US Forest Service will be doing more restoration work next summer.