TR: Eiseman Hut 12/18-12/22/2015

Our annual pre-Christmas Eiseman Hut trip is quickly becoming one of my favorite traditions. Rad hut, rad location, rad people. By the numbers: 1 backcountry hut, 4 days, 3 snowmobiles, 14 people, 18lbs of pork, 90 eggs, 9 gallons of beer, ~1 gallon of whisky, 12 bottles of wine. Fuck Thanksgiving, now THAT's a feast.

Needless to say, with the amount of food and such we brought in, our backpacks were very carefully packed.

Rick started out with his energy and stoke levels high.

The people that took the longer skin in looked strangely excited about hiking 7 miles. Probably because these were taken near the start of the hike.

We took the snowmobiles and beer on a much shorter route. Rick also looks strangely excited, probably because he's thinking about drinking the beer in that keg behind him.

Upon arrival at the hut, it was Gary's turn to be shamed.

It only took 3 years, but I finally got a bluebird day at Eiseman. The view of "East Corner" from the hut did not suck.

Anxious to ski, several of us went for a pre-breakfast lap. Which also did not suck.

After a truly absurd amount of bacon, it was time to ski again. Though much of the crew planned to just do quick laps near the hut, Rick, Gary, Brian #1, YC and I spotted some interesting terrain across the valley and wanted to go for a little more of an adventure. First though, we did a lap to establish a skintrack and begin to feel out the snowpack, then a second lap down into the valley.

We cruised across the valley, only to find that the route up that had looked good from a distance was steeper and more exposed than we had initially thought. So we dug in the snow to see what sort of risk we were facing.

A few layers were concerning enough that we elected not to climb the slope. We felt that the problems would be manageable on descent, but really didn't want to expose ourselves for longer than necessary by climbing the slope. So we bailed and headed back towards the hut, where we found most of the crew on the deck, working hard to ensure we would not be carrying any beer back down with us.

A sunset lap sounded like a great idea after a couple beers.

Yes, we're all very cute and matchy matchy. Shut up.

There was pow schralping:

Jibbing:

And near collisions:

Low sun angles near the winter solstice seems to pretty much guarantee at least one knockout sunset per trip.

Most everyone spilled outside to watch the show.

Rick, on the other hand, was a little too busy seeing if his new Grindr profile was getting any interest.

Things went from spectacular to outrageous.

The next morning was not bluebird, but Rick, Gary and I thought we had figured out a safe way to get over to the zone we had wanted to ski the previous day. We're all very proper and politically correct, especially when naming runs, so the three of us along with Brian #2 embarked out on the first Guilty Pleasures Tour.

The Guilty Pleasures Tour starts out by dropping into one of our favorite runs from the previous year's trip, Sundress No Panties.

From there we headed up the valley while the weather socked in.

From there, it was a short, steep and brutal climb up Mount Asshole, thus named because it looked like this the entire time.

We stumbled around in a very cold whiteout for awhile, following GPS and faint grassy patches to the top of the zone. Fortunately, it was well worth the work and the ensuing run was hands down the best of the trip, earning the area the name "Taint Tickler Trees."

It was a bit too cold to deal with Mount Asshole again, so we climbed back to the hut to the top of a run we now call Granny Panties (which actually skied very nicely).

Though most of the skiing of the trip was now finished, we weren't done yet. The clouds prevented a repeat of the light show, but fortunately we had the means to create our own.

We sadly had to say goodbye to the hut the following day, but Rick, Groves, and I got one last sweet run in.

Brian #1 kicked ass with the pulk on the way out.

Until next year...