Friends Hut Trip

April 5–8, 2026 · Elk Mountains

We did a 5 day hut trip between the Green-Wilson Hut and Friends Hut in the Alfred Braun Hut system. I learned on this trip that the Braun huts are all publicly reservable on May 1 and do not follow the same membership lottery system as the rest of the 10th Mountain Division huts. Pretty cool.

We skied most of what I had planned. The goal was to ski:

• Day 1: Conundrum Couloir + Castle Peak
• Day 2: Pearl Peak (and continue to Friends Hut via Pearl Pass)
• Day 3: June Couloir on Star Peak
• Day 4: Exit via the June Couloir, NE face of Star Peak, and Dr Evil Couloir

June Couloir was not in though so we changed up Days 3 and 4 for Carbonate Hill and skied a nice east facing bowl and then on our exit we skied Mace Peak.

Friends Hut

Friends Hut has a heavy origin story. In 1985, two small planes flying low over the Maroon Bells collided mid-air. Everyone on board was killed. The hut was built by friends of those who perished — a memorial you can actually sleep in and ski from, which is a pretty powerful thing.

I happened to be reading Lou Dawson's memoir Avalanche Dreams during this trip and got to the part where he talks about the crash. He was good friends with the pilot and ascended the peaks to the wreckage shortly after it happened. Reading that while sitting in the hut those people were memorialized by was surreal timing.