10th Mountain Hut endurance ski Nov 28th

I woke up this morning at about 10 or so. My alarm clock was still paying music and had been for the last 30 minutes so I though it was about time to get out of bed. I had made up my mind up the day before to skin to 10th Mountain Hut starting at the Tennessee Pass trail head located just opposite of the entrance from Ski Cooper. Most people going to 10th Mountain Hut start from Crane Park trailhead that is little over 1 mile closer to the hut. I wanted to take a longer tour pushing myself with speed so I decided to start from the Tennessee Pass trailhead. If I was ever going to skin into this hut with a fully loaded pack for an overnighter I would opt to use the Crane Park trailhead. The skin track was smooth as I started up the trail at about 11:30 with a very packed down trail leading all the way to the hut. I passed a group of two snowshoers heading out as I started to gain a small amount of elevation up to a meadow were I encountered a snowboarder that was pushing his board along the ground with a ski pole but looked unfazed by his mode of travel and method in which he was using so I pushed on. A little further I almost skinned passed a lady without even noticing here sitting on the ground just off the skin path. When I asked if she was okay I got a muffled response that made me keep pushing on almost missing a skier on cross country skis ripping through very thick trees, i'm guessing to cut the switchbacks out of the picture all together. On the last rise before the hut I met a nice older man that was carrying a fully loaded pack. I talked with him for a few minutes and found out he had been staying at the hut for 2 days and had made some nice turns yesterday. He turned out to be the last person I saw on the trail before getting to the hut to strip my skins, eat some lunch, and drink a little water. After lunch I headed down the way I had come passing all of the people I had seen on the way up and getting to the car at about 3:05. Good trip!

Pictures on 10th Mountain Hut endurance

Before gas...

After gas....much better

On the right track

10th Mountain Hut in all it's glory

Above doorway

Damn telemarkers. Only at Cooper with that suit!

Backcountry Skin Nov 27

I woke up to the sound of my alarm going but it didn't do much to wake me up. The problem was that I had set my computer alarm to play my "Chill" playlist instead of an intense playlist that would make me budge in the slightest. It really doesn't matter what playlist or alarm would go off, it always takes a while for me to get out of bed if it's not a powder day. Today as it turns out was hot as any spring day, the problem is that it's not spring. Spring is in fact five months away; it is in fact the end of November! This year has actually been pretty good so far with snow pack adding up quickly with frequent storms followed by warmer weather that allows me to make the tough decision between climbing in Buena Vista or skiing backcountry around Leadville. both choices make me drool but today Alex and I had already decided to make quick ski tour out of Homesteak Mountain, an area we have yet to make tracks at before he went to Denver for dinner with his family. We made it to the trailhead at 9:00 or so and quickly skinned up the trail passing by Continental Divide Hut for detour number one. After that we decided to skin in the direction of  a sign with "Treeline" on it. It probably didn't help that "Powderhound" was in the same direction. We later (20 minutes) found out the trail we were on never made it close to the real treeline and instead backtracked over a small hill back to another skin track that led us directly back to the parking lot we had started at little over 2 hours earlier. We took our skins off a ZERO times and enjoyed ZERO turns but we are both happy to have made these mistakes on one of our first ski tours in the area so that next time we know to haul ass to the 10th Mountain Hut because nothing in between is worth anytime. That's a day!
-Owen

Pictures of the Backcountry Skin

Why I travel!

This piece of writing was for a writing contest about why I love to travel but I'm just going to post it on here too.

Traveling, the word in itself makes me excited and ready to experience something new. It seems like I've been traveling for so long that it has started to feel natural to feel unnatural and out of my element in foreign places. My parents did a good job embedding the value that experiencing all you can in life is the best way you can spend your life. Possessions give off small amounts of happiness in comparison to experiences that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. These values led my family to move to Germany and stay there for 7 years traveling all over Europe and experiencing all that we could in those years. This is why I travel: the memories, new friends, and the new experiences. I like that fact that I can call someone a friend not because we went to the same school or grew up in the same neighborhood but because we sat down and had a conversation together at a train station eatery or played soccer together on a gravel field. I can call someone a friend and they can call me a friend without even knowing each others names but just because we were at the right place at the right time and shared a few minutes together that ended with a handshake. Just like that memories are made and that is the soul purpose I travel, the memories. To capture and relive these memories I have taken too many photos and video to remember but I would be able to remember exactly where I was and what I was doing if I saw any of them on a screen. Not only do I take these photos and write journals for myself but I also do them for those who are not there to see what I'm talking about to give them a sense of what I was going at the time I took that snapshot or pressed record on the camcorder video. I have received no formal training in video editing or writing but I know that when I see people watching an edit I've been working on with a smile that I have passed on a little bit of the experience to them and to me making others want to travel makes the troubles of crowded airports, long lines, and translations problems all worth it!
-Owen Darrow

Hut Trip

This trip took place on Nov 20^th but I only uploaded the pics now so here is the trip report.

On Nov 20th I woke up to blue skies and the forecast saying that snow was on it's way over the next few days. I decided to call up my backcountry skiing partner Alex Curry to see if he would be up for skinning into a hut that I had been told about earlier in the year for an overnighter and possibly killer turns the next morning. He agreed and a little less than one hour later Alex, Mosley(golden retriever), and I were on our way to the trailhead. When we arrived at the trailhead we were shocked to see more cars parked than ever before. This got us worried that another party might have had the same idea as us but we were fine with sharing with another group of skiers if that meant meeting new people. We started skinning up the trail at about 11:30 carrying way too much food and just about the perfect amount of beer on the top of my pack. The skin into the hut only took 2 hours but we were ready to be there. When we arrived we found that there wasn't much wood in the wood storage bin so we spent an hour or so getting enough wood to last us well into the night. By the time we had a fire going in the stove, Bob Marley jamming on the stereo, a beer opened, and a game of chess started the snow was falling faster and faster. Beer after beer was opened along with a book that was left at the cabin by Lou Dawson called, “Wild Snow”. The book was filled with pictures of crazy backcountry ski destinations all over North America. After eating a dinner of speghetti and reading some more next to the fire I headed up into the loft to fall asleep. The fire was still going so it was pretty hot up in the loft but 3 hours later it was gettin to be cold again. I ended up waking up at 5:30 totally awake and not able to sleep anymore so I built another fire and sat by it for a few hours with Mosley before Alex got out of bed. When Alex got out of bed he put together a breakfast of hash browns that ended up a bit crunchier than ideal but still filled me up so it was ideal. After messing around for an hour more we finally got our ski gear on and skinned out of the hut to the other side of the ridge for a quick ski to the base of the skin track. We found out that the snow wasn't quit as good as we though it would be. The wind had created a very crisp layer on the top of the snow that was almost unbreakable in places and in other places you would sink up to your shins. Very unpredictable snow so we decided to skin back up to the hut and grab the gear we had left and head out along the ridge looking for place to drop into the trees. When we gained the ridge we found out just how bad the avalanche danger was. As I looked back to watch Alex skin along the ridge a slab broke that was probably 1½ ft thick and 20 feet wide. After that scare we made our way to the top of the ridge and followed it until we were into very thick trees on shallow terrain. We skied the shallow terrain in the trees making some of the best turns of the whole trip all the way down to the road that we followed out to the car. This was a great trip as far as the hut goes but the only thing that didn't cooperate with us were the snow conditions. We had brutal wind the whole time that pushed even the deepest snow into nothing but a sheet of ice above treeline and made for very high avalanche danger. It looks like I'm going to have to visit this hut again once the snow pack gets stronger and the wind relaxes and little bit. Good trip nonetheless!!

-Owen Darrow

Pictures from Hut trip Nov 20th

A Quote from Sterling Hayden

It looks like it's time for some traveling....
"To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about."

First Post

My name is Owen Darrow and I'm currently living in Leadville, CO. Living in Leadville lets me go into the mountains as much as possible and to me that is very important. My favorite things to do with my free time are skiing, climbing, and hiking as much as I can. As soon as the snow hit's all my focus is to skiing but sometimes I'll go back to climbing in the middle of winter to get a good balance because spending too much time focusing on one thing can make the thing you love seem more like work than fun. Right now I'm looking for work around Leadville right now but it's getting difficult because I want to stay around this town and in these mountain but because of work I might have to leave for a little while. I have been looking for a job for around two months and have only heard one or two good things. My parents that are currently living in Germany have been doing there best to get me a job over there so that is an option that I have not been looking at to strongly but soon will because of the drought of options in my area currently. Whatever happens I hope it turns out for the best and gets me more skiing and climbing amongst new or old friends. That is my life right now and I will be able to keep this blog updated in the weeks to come,

enjoy.