Ashcroft, Colorado
Cross Country Skiing
The Markley Hut - Part 2
Monday, December 30,2003
We found the sign, even though it was only for those going down the hill!
At the sign, we turned off the trail to the right and went in about 10 minutes.
We cross the creek and finally saw the cabin in the woods.
It's a "small" cabin but after 3 hours, a very welcome sight.
The view from the cabin porch was great.
The other party never showed up. It was very cold in the hut initially, but with both the wood stove and wood kitchen stove going, it eventually warmed up nicely. The solar powered lighting worked fine. This is an older, smaller, hut, only sleeping a maximum of about 8, and that would be very crowded. Jim speculated that the other party was planning on spending the first night of a multi-day trip at Markley, got hung up getting started, and just decided to ski all the way to their second night hut the next day. It snowed a couple of inches that night, and got down to about 0 degrees.
The stove was very warm and Jim resupplied the wood box.
It was nice to warm up!
This is the kitchen area. We cooked a nice dinner.
This was a double bed downstairs. Upstairs were pallets on the floor for six. Thank goodness the other party did not show up. It would have been noisy.
The view out the window the next morning.
For more information on the Braun and 10th Mountain Huts in the Aspen and Vail region, go to http://huts.org and the Markley Hut in particular.
