Every year my lab group goes on an overnight trip to one of the cabins in the 10th Mountain Division hut system. In Jan. 2018 we went on our 4th such trip, this time to Chuck's Cabin near Vail Pass, Colorado. We left on a Monday morning and met at the Vail Pass trail head for a 10:30/11 AM departure (hoping the hike would be around 2 hours and get us to the cabin after the 1AM check-in time). Weather was partly sunny and warm, around 40F with moderate wind. The hike was mostly exposed in large alpine meadows/valleys with the last 1/4 to 1/2 mile inside a tall pine grove as seen below. I will say up front this trip was really amazing experience, but, from a photography standpoint, was rather disappointing due to uninteresting weather. Because of this I focused mainly on people photos which are not displayed in my trip report for the sake of privacy for my colleagues. Below are the less personal photos I am willing to share, starting with the approach hike!
We arrived at the cabin around 1:15 PM after the 2-3 mile hike which we did in a mix of ski and snowshoe equipment. I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the cabin. Unlike the 3 huts we stayed at in previous years, Chuck's cabin is privately owned and of higher quality. The cabin has two distinct living spaces, each with separate heating systems, an array of batteries for power, and indoor plumbing, the latter of which is a pretty drastic improvement over the outdoor pit toilets of many other huts (very cold in the winter) although at the cost of the an authentic "roughing it" experience.
A notable difference in the upstairs living area is the beautiful claw foot tub instead of a standing shower:
Here you can see the exterior of the cabin as well as the sauna building located about 100 feet away from the main structure and shared with 2 other nearby huts.
The hut was nicely stocked with wood, but it is courteous to split the amount of wood you use so the next guests can start a fire as soon as they arrive. Chuck's Cabin has a very nice splitting axe which a research assistant in the lab instructed me how to use properly (very easy).
A slightly colorful sunset and the fire we had going in the upstairs portion of Chuck's Cabin:
Unfortunately, we had terrible stargazing weather, so I do not have any astrophotos of this area. The hike out was easy being all downhill. I rushed a little more than usual because I received a winter storm warning on my cell phone on the way out. Below you can see some thicker clouds that probably left fresh snow at higher elevations later in the day. The winter storm warning was most severe for the area west of us; we were not in any danger of large amounts of snowfall.
As I alluded to at the beginning of the report, the weather was not great for premium landscape photos. Many landscape photographers have a very preparatory mindset when it comes to their shots. For example, on every overnight hut trip, I try to get a shot of the hut at night with stars above and some dim light inside the cabin. On this trip we had very heavy cloud cover at night, so that shot was not possible. This type of situation requires some flexibility and causes you to manage your expectations with the goal of creating some nice photos in non-ideal situations. On this trip I tried to get some interesting environmental portraits (not shown) and was moderately successful. But, going forward, it would probably be to my benefit to get even more into a flexibility-oriented mindset so I do not miss nice shots while trying to get shots I had mentally prepared for (but might be too great given current conditions).
Gear: Nikon D610 and 28mm f/1.8, a very capable one lens setup for cold weather excursions.
© 2010 - Andrew Reineberg