Home»All Photographs»Skiing»Colorado 10th Mtn Backcountry Ski Tour - Spring Break 2012 (Mar 24 - 29)»10th Mtn Ski Tour (Mar 2012) - Day 1 Turquoise Lake TH to Skinner Hut

Day 1 started with a great breakfast in Leadville. The route to Skinner Hut is one of the longest on the entire 10th Mtn Hut system. To give our large group a head start, we hired an outfitter to snowmobile ourselves, packs, skis, and more than a case of beer to the far side of Turquoise Lake. We used Burandt's Backcountry Adventure for both the snowmobile shuttle and moving our cars to the TH on the other side of the continental divide. They were easy to work with and provided great service.

Using the snowmobile shuttle cut off about 6 or 7 easy miles but left the last four miles to ski and a provided steep and challenging final approach to Skinner Hut (about 1500' elevation gain). The weather was perfect and we got to the hut in good time and had a relaxing first night at 11,200 feet!