[dobish]

After about a million emails about bacon, the crew of us finally got our plans set for heading up to the Eisman hut. the plan was to meet at the trail head at 7:30am, just in time to watch the sunrise.



People were coming from all over. Some people were bringing snow mobiles, some people were bringing sleds, some people backpacks, and some people didn't know what was going on because they hadn't had their morning coffee.

Finally we got there, and half of us decided to head up the Red Sandstone Road, while the other half ended up going up Spraddle Creek trail. The road was a lot flatter, and a little bit longer, but since the snowmobile was going up that way, we decided that some of us should go up in case something happened, like the sled snapped or something.

After about 20 times of reloading the sled that was being dragged, we got it most of the way up to the hut. Christian and Rontele starting trying to drag duffle bags behind them, and got about 20 yards before some of us went down to help them... then there was the sled that they thought was mostly empty. It wasn't. It took me about 45 minutes to go 20 yards, and then i gave up and just did laps with my backpack. After about an hour, somebody finally noticed that I was gone.

Brady:




Nicole:


Nicole and Ingrid:


Stupendous Man after his 6 hour approach:


Sunset:


Rontele at dusk:


Ingrid at dusk:


Snowbeard at dusk:


The forecast was supposed to be snowing all weekend, but we had really nice weather on both friday and saturday. Friday night we were all pretty tired, so we had a nice meal and a couple of drinks. Danno was nice enough to stash about 60 PBR's up at the hut over the summer, so that was a nice treat. Curry on friday night was really good.

Stupendous man, being stupendous:


a little chanukkah love....


Rontele got some blister love for the first night of the holiday!


Saturday was another day with no snow, but there was still enough left over from the last storm to make it enjoyable. We all headed out in our own directions, some of us doing laps on the front side, and others doing a little bit longer tours. the snow was a little iffy in some spots, as it was real sugary. People with skinny skis kept falling down, but i don't know if that had anything to do with the skis. There were some chutes that everyone was eyeing, and a couple of people had dug a pit at the top of one in particular. Ingrid and Dave skied one that had a couple of tracks in it, and I traversed over some sketchy rocks and shredded another line. The snow in there was bomber, but it was so deep! At one point, I was standing up and the snow was up to my neck!

Ingrid on my skis:




Zack:




Rontele slaying it:








Ingrid, making sure it's slayed:




so slayed...




but she showed that slope who was boss...


After getting back to the hut, and enjoying a nice relaxing hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps, it was time for dinner. Christian managed to kill a deer with his bare hands, and make an amazing venison stew. Sooooo good. After that came the lighting of the channukah lights....





Traditionally, the jewish mother lights the candles and says the blessings, but since the only jews that were with us on the trip were males, we let the "honorary jews" light the menorah. we said the blessings, and were going to play dreidel, but nobody brought one. We were going to cook latkes, but there was so much food as it was. We enjoyed our festive lights, and then came the the snow-ice-cream that danno made. It was really good, especially when we started putting bailey's in it!

Sarah and Ingrid lighting the menorah:






In the spirit of the old days, we were celebrating that we had such a good festive celebration. Lots of maker's mark, tequilla, wine, cognac, schnapps of different varieties, jameson, vodka, pbr, and the list goes on and on.... into when we started with our "White Elephant" gift exchange....
_________________
Smile when you're going down, it looks more graceful.

www.backcountrycoalition.com
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[dobish]

Given that 2 of the 15 people left their gifts in their cars, it was a miracle that there were 15 gifts on the table, just like it was a miracle that the oil lasted 8 days, instead of one.

We had quikdraws and globstopper,
nudie cards and sippy cups,
Tea tumblers and hippy pouches,
coffee cards and books,
smartwool hats and nikwax tubes,
Berthoud Ski resort maps and thermos cups,
a disc golf driver and some i-tunes to pump.
Not to mention the nuns that were chucked.

Along with every mention of the word gift, one needed to take a shot, and if you eagerly said "thank you" the bottle was passed. If you were nice enough to be like the grinch and steal a gift, there was a punishment for this.

Shots of whiskey and bourbon and vodka and schnapps,
all were passed with much holiday cheer.
Drinks were drunk and we all enjoyed the hops
that were so graciously put in the beer.

The embibements were gone but the cheer hadn't gone
we all went to sleep, to dream of bon-bons.
There was not one among us who did not awake in a stupor,
and when breakfast was put on the table, it was super.
There were sausages and bacon, pancakes and eggs,
and even some croissants, that didn't have legs.
We looked out the windows and saw it was snowing
and all of our faces, started glowing.
The sky was spitting and the ground was all white,
and we knew that even though we were tired, the day would be all right.

Christian and sarah went to sleigh the chutes, followed by others, who were not playing flutes.
The snow was perfect, all soft and fluffy
the skins in the jackets made everyone look puffy.
All covered in snow,
and in the know,
we skied and skied
until it was time to go.

the way out was nice, with turns to be made,
with backpacks and beers, and gatorade.
Twas a great weekend, from here to there,
and I can't wait to do it again and have more people share.

Danno:




Stupendous Man:





_________________
Smile when you're going down, it looks more graceful.

www.backcountrycoalition.com
www.splitloaves.wordpress.com www.bentgate.com www.flylowgear.com

[MattB]

Nice TR! Looked like fun.

"So much funukah
To celebrate Chanukah!"
_________________
There cannot be pleasure without pain. -Skerik

Matt

[Woolbury]

Sounds every bit as debaucherous as I'd imagined. Dobish, you crack me up.

[SkaredShtles]

Excellent trip report! Thanks for sharing the pics.

"So drink your gin-and-tonikka.... and smoke your marijuanikka."

[Carbo]

dobish, you're an odd one!

[Tainted Meat]

Nice work Jeremy. There is some great skiing around that hut. Looks like you guys had a blast!
I was at Margy's hut this weekend. Snow wasn't so good, but we had some fun on the kicker we built.

[pow]

Hilarious TR! Looks like a fun trip.

[christian :?)]

It was a great trip with a super-solid crew! Thanks to Danno for organizing it, and for everyone who showed up and skied and partied with incredible spirit.

Sarah had a camera which caught a couple of pics. I know more in the group did as well, and hopefully can post them up here.

Sarah, ready to drop:



This:







On Sat., I suggested we dig a pit on the top of that, which with help from Danno, Sarah, and Snowbeard, revealed about a 5 to 6 foot pack. NNW aspect. Bottom 7” or so depth hoar, the middle of the pack was about 4 ft. of incredibly stable snow, a very thin surface hoar layer followed with about 8” of new, low density pow on top. Snowbeard carded the slope angle at 31 degrees before the roll over.

The look sums up the run:



Very snowy on Sunday morning, not too great for pics:



Me at the top of our tour to Peak 11,770’. Danno has some great scenics of this. I’m glad we motivated folks to go for this and top out, as Sarah & I really wanted to be on something summit like. The skiing below it was incredible.



Packing up the sled for the trek out. Yes, it was nuking:



- Christian :?)

[Danno]

Some pretty shots from the hut:




A few from the skin up Spraddle Creek.

Lots of deadfall on the trail, each one presenting its own problems (illustrated here by Zac)




Saturday gearing up.



We skinned out to the point of the ridge, but found no way out:


stupendous man proving his stupendousness



Skinning up the other side:

The ridge/point we were just on is visible in the background.


Highlight shots of the weekend for me. Brady, snowbeard, Christian and Sarah on top of something.




On the way down, Brady had a massive binding failure (G3 Targa ). Snowbeard had replacement parts, thank god.

The rest of us waited patiently, some smoking them if they have them (but hiding the cig from the camera ).


Sarah shredding

snowbeard


The next day
dobish?

me

ingrid

snowbeard


What a trip. Dobish failed to mention the Nun Chucker amongst the gifts. Or some of our ideas for new skis: Shiksa Stix. Or any other fun things we discussed.

Thanks everyone for yet another great trip.!
_________________
"anecdotes are fine assbaggery is not"
"I don't really think she's trolling, more like tra-la-la-la-ling."
"I'm comfortable misreading the tone of posts in a way which suits me."
"Alas, I've been born a Sisyphus for love."

[adrenalated]

Noice! Great write-ups and pics.
_________________
mediocre kneedropper

[cesare]

I am dying to know what kind of skis are Shiksa-stix!

Looks like fun y'all. Sorry I missed it.
_________________
Many things on my mind,
Words in the way.

-- Sly Stone --

[Danno]

[TeleMang]

You guys really need to learn how to have fun

Awesome TR
_________________
Monkeys aren't donkeys! Quit messing with my head!

[adrenalated]