103 | Lost Wonder Hut, Colorado

Over the weekend, I joined ten others for a trip to Lost Wonder Hut on the east side of Monarch Pass near Garfield, Colorado. Unfortunately, the snow conditions were pretty crappy (read: very small pockets of powder sparsely-spaced between incredibly fun layers of sun crust and windbuffed snow). But we did make the most of it, and the atmosphere sure settled in nicely with several bottles of various liquor and the always-necessary keg of PBR.

Yes, you read that correctly. With the help of a snowmobile and a last-minute construction of a keg luge, we were able to bring some beer to the party ... lots of it.



Hobart protecting the keg from all intruders:





The hut was only 2.6 miles from the trailhead, but knowing that Jerry would help out with a couple of his snowmobiles, we packed heavily and enthusiastically. Sadly, Jerry likes to drink quite a bit, so when we should have been at the hut some time around noon, our arrival was delayed several hours because of his affinity towards beer. Awesome.



Eventually, the rest of the group made it up in the early evening and a late tour was in order.





After the tour, a jam session lasting well over an hour ensued. Without much for instruments, we improvised. There was already a guitar and banjo sitting in the lower level of the hut which Charlie and Marc took a liking to, respectively. Mack found a large Gatorade container, ripped off it's lid, and used the bottom of the jug as a bongo. Murphy put use to the ripped-off lid while stomping down on it with a broomstick. When Vince wasn't singing lead vocals, he appropriately banged on a metal bowl with a spoon. To complete, I took a couple of knives and started banging on the bottom of a Nalgene bottle which had a similar sound to a woodblock (go figure). Below is a short memory of the event.


(L-R: me, Mack, Charlie, Vince)


(L-R: Mack, Charlie, Vince, Murphy)


Jam Session at Lost Wonder Hut (2009.02.07) from Thomas Armento on Vimeo.



Later that night, Murphy and Mack discovered an alternate way to use the keg luge. After a test run down a steep slope, they quickly realized how much speed the contraption gains while having great stability. Apparently, the skis set such a solid track in snow that anything was possible with Murphy and Mack finding out all limits their new death toy possessed.


The two knuckleheads with their pride and joy:




Murphy getting some help from behind:




And now it's up to inertia:





By an amazing act of God, no one was hurt during the moonlight luge session, so we were able to get some skiing done the next day. A storm was supposed to dump at least a six inches by Sunday morning, but every forecaster seemed to miss their prediction by twelve hours. Regardless, a few decent turns were had:


Lost Wonder Hut (2009.02.07-08) from Thomas Armento on Vimeo.


In all, it was a great weekend with all things considered. Sure, it would have been epic had I been able to stay an extra night like most of the others at the hut (snowfall was at an inch-per-hour rate at 3pm while I was returning to the trailhead and there was no sign of letting up), but it's probably best to save the vacation and sick days for something better.