The Peter Estin Hut
Four miles. Does’t seem like a long way. A winter four miles though. Now that’s different. Four hours after we left the cars outside of Eagle, Colo., we opened the front door of the Estin Hut and set our heavy packs (full of green chile for 9, a bottle of wine, four days’ worth of burritos and sandwiches, a toothbrush) on the dented, wide plank floor. The Peter Estin Hut is one of the fabled 10th Mountain Division Huts in Colorado, which grew out of the spirit of the 10th Mountain Division program — soldiers trained out of Camp Hale for WWII missions in the mountains. We — a group of 9 — rented the hut for four days. And it was snowing.
A thin line in.
There’s no feeling like seeing the hut for the first time on the way up. That, and taking a 50 pound pack off.
No reception. No frills. No noise.
You ski all day, up and down under your own power. You convene around a table at night and share a meal that one of the groups is responsible for. Up here, small gestures like fresh cilantro are treated like caviar. Fresh salsa? Incredible.
Free Refills.
It snowed and snowed. I wished I brought more beer. At the Estin Hut, one can ski straight down the bowl without taking a step uphill. Coffee, clip in, and poof.
Lunch break.
AM laps. Quick lunch stop. A sip of Fireball, perhaps a nap. Then a few more laps, where the only sound is my breathing, the unmistakable and soft murmur of the fresh snow below, and a few hoots from the crowd.
It’s so simple. But it feels like everything.
