About an hour later after passing the observation deck above Aspen.
So in February this year I joined the 10th Mountain Hut Organization in the hopes of doing a winter hut trip. After looking at all the options I decided on the Fabi Benedict Hut because it only holds 6 people and I couldn't stand the thought of sharing a hut with 16 strangers. So we reserved the hut for the 10-12 of December, this past weekend. All year long I looked forward to this trip. Of course Renae was in and we invited Mary Lasley, Karyn Franklin, and Cheryl. Cheryl couldn't make it because of her work schedule and Karyn broke her back 6 weeks before the trip (bummer). Mary and I had a planning meeting about a week before the trip and decided on what food to bring and other various necessities. We decided to start out from Grand Junction at 0900 on Friday morning.
Friday morning rolls around and Renae and I pack our bags and make sure we have everything we need or might need. I commented that RJ would be laughing at us because we were bringing things we probably wouldn't need. We left the house around 0830 to go pick up Mary in Palisade and hit the road for Aspen shortly after 0900. We seemed all pretty stoked about the trip and talked about all sorts of things on the way up. We found the Hunter Creek Trailhead fairly easily and Renae dropped Mary and I off with all the gear and went and parked the car. We decided not to cross country ski because it seemed there wasn't that much snow. We were all glad we made that decision because the trail gained almost 2,000 feet of elevation and it would have sucked to be on cc skis.
Once Renae got up to us we put on our packs oriented the map turned on the spot and headed up the trail. We saw quite a few people walking and made sure we were headed in the right direction and hiked on. We came to a fork in the trail where we could go towards Smuggler Mountain or continue on the Hunter Creek Trail. The map didn't show a fork in the trail so we asked a hiker that had come along and she indicated the huts were up on Smuggler Mountain. So we took the fork in the road. We soon began hiking up a couple of switchbacks in which we gained about 300 feet of elevation. We stopped around 130 to eat lunch. We had been hiking about 1 1/2 hours by the time we stopped. I estimated that we had gone about 1 3/4 mile only 4 more miles to go.
After lunch we continued on and the sun had come out. Up until this point it had been lightly snowing and cloudy. I had been leading the crew at this point and we were still going up switchbacks gaining probably another 400-500 feet to the Observation Deck above Aspen. It was about 2 1/2 miles into the trail with meant we had about another 3 1/4 to go. We had thought it somewhat steep to this point but we had no idea that it was about to get much steeper. I would say it was about 230pm by the time we hit the observation deck and I was somewhat concerned that we would make it to the cabin before the sun set but if we didn't we all had headlamps. The trail was marked with intermittent blue blazes. Which were pretty easy to follow.
We started up a steep grade that proceeded up Smuggler Mountain Road. We hiked for about another 1 1/2 hours before the terrain got really steep and I would take 25 steps and stop for 45 secs then another 25 steps and rest for 45 secs. When we started doing the above I guessed that we had another 1 to 1 1/2 miles to go and it was almost 4pm. Renae had started falling behind because she was she was wearing her hunting boots which were rubbing her heels. We stopped long enough for her to put her snow shoes on which seemed to help. We made it to the top of the mountain right at 445pm and it looked like on the map that we should be seeing the turn off for the cabin which was good because I was pretty exhausted as were the other two.
We continued looking for the blue blazes and were still seeing them however it was now almost dark and I was beat. I tossed my pack off for about 5 min and walked ahead to see if I could see the cabin which I couldn't. I dreaded putting my pack back on but did anyway. Renae then took the lead because I had been breaking snow for about an hour and I was in hiking boots and couldn't do it anymore. We all kept thinking that we would be at the hut shortly. By 530pm I was concerned and kept saying I could only make it 5 to 15 more minutes before I thought I would collapse.
Renae gave was able to push me on until about 615pm at that point I was totally exhausted and was ready just to stop. I mentioned several times we should press the SOS button on the spot but the group kept thinking we were around the corner from the cabin. Renae gave me some trail mix which I threw up about 45 min later. At this point my lucidity was fading fast and I told Renae we needed to have a plan. At 640pm we decided to turn around and head back down the way we had come in the hopes that we would see the cabin marker. By now it had been snowing hard for about 15-30. Mary took the lead and had worked way ahead of us. Renae and I stopped around 715pm because I wasn't able to go as fast I kept postholing and why I didn't put on my snowshoes I'll never know. I told Renae we need to press the SOS on the spot because we are headed for trouble if we don't. So Renae got the Spot off my pack and I pressed the SOS button.
At 728pm I got a text from my sister asking if we were alive. I didn't know we had cell service so was really surprised. I texted her back that we needed help and then Renae took my phone because I was really out of it. I held the Spot in my hand and watched the green blinks thinking it was going to transport me some place warm. There were several texts and phone calls from my sister which Renae answered. Christi was coordinating with I guess Colorado State Patrol at first until they could determine our coordinates and get connected to the correct SAR team.
I'm not sure about the time frame but at some point the Aspen Mountain Rescue SAR team contacted my phone and Renae gave them the information they needed, after all we weren't lost because we knew exactly where we were we just didn't know where the cabin/hut was. At several points I thought I was in Alaska, I didn't know why Mary was with us, the snow falling in my headlamp light was pretty, and I knew I quit shivering at 730pm. Being a Kinesiology Student and having just finished A&P I knew that was bad because shivering is the body's way of putting the body back into homeostasis. Renae said that SAR was on their way with snow mobiles.
We connected back with Mary sometime in the 7 o' clock hour and Renae told her to stay behind me because I kept asking to just sit down. We made pretty good time back down the mountain. I would estimate that it had snowed anywhere from 8-12 inches in an hour making following our tracks back down quite difficult. Renae did an awesome job of locating her snowshoe tracks from the way up.
We had to get past a downed tree that we had crawled under on the way up in order to meet the snow mobiles. Which we made it to and beyond when the SAR team reached us. Renae had been telling them over the phone my condition which apparently every one thought was I was in trouble but in my head I was warm, in Alaska, and just ready to go to sleep, geez. So when we reached the team Renae gave them report, like the excellent nurse she is, and one of the guys took my pack off my back. Once the load was off my back I immediately fell face flat into the snow and began rolling down the mountain. John, the SAR team member, was like holy crap whats wrong, and Renae in her best non-sarcastic voice said, "she's disoriented" like hello silly.
I was loaded onto the first snow mobile and they took me down to the ambulance who was waiting at the bottom of smuggler road. I fell again getting off the snow mobile I remember that. The EMT took my shoes and socks of and my feet were blotchy and he wrung about 2 cups of water out of my socks. I was hooked up to a blood pressure cuff and O2 Sat monitor and my blood pressure was 150/100 and my O2 levels were between 86-88. He then took my temp and said crap. My temp was 94.6. He kept calling me Emily and I wasn't sure if I gave him that name or he just couldn't remember Julie.
I don't remember a lot of the ride to the ER in Aspen other than he stuck me with a IV. The two nurses at the ER were great, Jill and I don't remember the other nurses name, but they got my snow gear off without cutting off any of it. They put warm blankets on me and I started shivering. I looked up at the clock on the wall and it said it was after 11pm. The doctor was cool and wanted to know about the Spot and I started getting a little more with it. He told me I had Acute Hypothermia, Hypoxia, and Frost Nip. They put two bags of warm Normal Saline into me and discharged me around 0230 on Saturday morning.
While I was getting a ride to the hospital Renae was still having to walk down the trail because they had put Mary on the other snow mobile but the one that had taken me down wasn't back up there yet. So Renae was trudging down the trail. Once the other driver got back up there they got them down and the Sheriff's Deputy drove them over to the car and they came to the ER.
The head of SAR Hugh something was having a local restaurant open their kitchen so his team could get something to eat. Renae asked if she and Mary could go with them and he said he would take them. Apparently they got served petite steaks and potatoes. The SAR team was awesome. I told them I had a COSAR card and they asked if I could get them the number so they could be reimbursed. Not only did I do that but went onto their website and made a donation to their organization. Aspenmountainrescue.org
What a crazy adventure. The SAR team indicated to Renae that the hut we were headed to was the hardest hut to find in the Aspen area and that they have missed the hut turn off at least three separate times. The were happy that the rescue turned out well because they had been bummed about not being able to find a Snowmass worker how had taken a wrong turn 14 days ago. I'm glad the adventure is over and not sure I will attempt another hut trip.
