I’m glad I went to the San Juans this past weekend, the skiing was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, the hike in and out was far from ‘a lot of fun’. I blame nobody but myself. The signs were there, and I just didn’t heed them.

The general jist was that sleds we built were not an ideal choice for the hike in. The first 3 miles of trail were on fire roads, which was no problem at all. The last 3.5 miles were twisty, turny singletrack with lots of sideslopes just waiting to flip sleds and break PVC pipe poles.

The total 6.5 mile approach took us almost 7 hours. At one point, we actually considered just stopping and camping partway up. In the end, I’m really glad we didn’t, but it was a very real option at the time.

Once we finally got to the Ridgeway Hut, it was a beautiful area, and I got a couple good nights of sleep out under the stars (hooray for a “good sleeping bag”:http://www.mountainhardwear.com/Product.aspx?top=1245&prod=1122&cat=1293&viewAll=False !)

We got some good skiing in on saturday, and hit up an area caled the ‘cobra chute’ just south of the cabin. It wasn’t the greatest snow, but the tracks we left were very aesthetic, which works for me. As a bonus, you can see them from the trail leading up to the hut, so everyone who is headed up there before the next snow falls will know that we left our mark.

Saturday afternoon and sunday morning we hit a couple tree runs through some nice soft powder just above camp for some quick 1000 ft vertical runs.

Although the sleds were lighter due to the lack of food, beer, and water, the hike out on sunday was still pretty painful. I actually broke my sled one last time, and hiked the last 4 miles out with my duffel bag on my shoulders because I was sick of the sleds breaking. It wasn’t the most comfortable way to do it, but we made it out, and were back in flag by midnight.

I’m waiting on some pictures to come in from everyone, but here’s a little teaser for you. This is me, with a look of determination powering through some crappy, crusty snow.

And here is the aftermath of what we did to the ‘cobra chute’.