Commentary

New hut opening on Berthoud Pass

A new hut system is planned for Colorado's Berthoud Pass

Originally Published: February 9, 2012
By Devon O'Neil | ESPN.com

Eben MondDoug Evans on Colorado's Berthoud Pass, the future site of a new backcountry hut.

Ask any backcountry skier around Colorado's Front Range, and they'll tell you Berthoud Pass -- 50 minutes outside of downtown Denver -- offers some of the best and most diverse backcountry ski terrain in the state. Soon, thanks to a 15-year effort by a group of longtime Grand County locals, you'll be able to ski hut to hut around Berthoud Pass and possibly for 50 miles north, starting in the popular Second Creek drainage and continuing all the way to Grand Lake.

The fledgling Grand Huts Association (GHA) plans to connect nine huts in the years to come, building five new ones and adopting four existing structures. The first of those nine, the 1,800-square-foot Broome Hut at 11,200 feet elevation, is halfway completed and should be open for public use next winter. From there, GHA vice president David Maddox said, "We would like to have a new hut every two years or so."

The new Grand County hut system is not only significant because it will add a European-style alpine route to Berthoud Pass and the surrounding area. Its founders also worked with state legislators to change a longstanding -- and long-overlooked -- Colorado law that prohibited citizens from catching precipitation on their roof (or in, say, a barrel) and storing it for later use, i.e. drinking water.

"It was a big deal to get that law changed," Maddox said, noting GHA spent $13,000 on engineering data needed to change the law. "It was something that had to happen to continue with the Broome hut."

Accessible via an 800-vertical-foot hike over 1.5 miles, the 16-person Broome Hut is designed to have minimal impact on the environment. Passive and active solar construction will augment the crawl-space pellet stove and three compost toilets. One of the conditions required by the U.S. Forest Service when it issued GHA its Broome permit was that GHA build a day-use room to be host to volunteers and non-overnight guests. The room will also feature an "avalanche poster program," Maddox said, informing skiers which lines are more prone to sliding in Second Creek.

The GHA also hopes to donate its huts for educational purposes as often as possible. "I'm a former elementary teacher," project director Andrew Miller said, "and I think there's a real need to get kids into the woods and high peaks."

In addition to the GHA's plans, the independent Opus Hut opened this winter in southwest Colorado near Silverton. And although still in its nascent stages, last May the Summit Huts Association in Summit County submitted a Forest Service proposal to construct a new hut in Weber Gulch outside Breckenridge, adding to the organization's four current huts.

As for the Broome Hut, "We have a two-year window for construction, and we started last May," Maddox said. "So we're working like mad to raise the final $100,000 to finish the hut. The total structure cost is about $400,000. We're hoping to be open by December."

Devon O'Neil

Writer, Action Sports
O'Neil was raised in the Virgin Islands before dropping anchor to ski, write, and combine the two for profit. He now lives in Breckenridge, Colo.

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