Benedict 100

The first hut trip I ever did was in 2002, to the Fowler Hilliard hut.  10 years later I had visited several more huts, and in the winter of 2012 we completed our first "hut-to-hut", from the Benedict Huts to McNamara.  This included an 8 mile route between the two huts through primitive wilderness that took our group about 9 hours.  Shortly after that trip I came across a notice advertising the "Benedict 100", a six day, 100 mile trip from Aspen to Vail.  Most days were between 12 and 15 miles, with a long day of 20+ miles.  I've heard that outdoor activities fall into one of three types:  1) "I can see myself doing that"  2) "I could never do that, but I can picture someone else doing that"  3) "I can't imagine anyone doing that".  For me, the idea of the Benedict 100 fell somewhere between #2 and #3.

A picture of the original Fowler Hilliard hut.  December 2002.

A few more years passed, and we began to build up more experience with longer trips, including a 4 day, 3 night trip from Camp Hale to Vail ("Hale to Vail!").  I also systematically began replacing old gear with newer and lighter gear; for example, I traded in my 50L/4.5 lb pack for a 35L/1.9 lb version, and my 0 degree/3.5 lb sleeping bag for a 35 degree/1.5 lb one.  But I never seriously entertained the idea of trying Benedict 100 until Kyle put in for the lottery in the spring of 2015, and got several spots for spring break 2016.  Alright, game on!

I'm a big believer in Henry Ford's quote "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right".  That being said, if you are considering attempting the Benedict 100, but you're not sure if you can do it, please look into going with a guide.  As of 2019, Paragon Guides, and possibly other guides, offer Benedict 100 trips.  For our group, we never considered doing a guided trip.  Although there was some uncertainty about undertaking a trip of this difficulty, I think we were very confident that we had enough experience that we could be safe, regardless of unexpected things that might come our way.  But, make no mistake, this is a serious undertaking that puts a group in very remote places, where any combination of equipment failure, injury, or weather could have serious consequences.

Fast forward to late March of 2016.  Our group numbered five: myself, Kyle, Dave, Rob, and Tom.  Unfortunately Mark had been dealing with some knee problems and had to drop out.  After various discussions about logistics, we settled on the following:  Kyle left his car at the South Camp Hale trailhead, where we could resupply on day 4 (which happened to be the longest day).  We stashed a car in West Vail at a friend of a friend's house.  Tom's wife, Kate, then drove all five of us to Aspen, and afterwards she headed to Moab for her own spring break getaway.  In retrospect, figuring out these logistics may have been one of the most difficult parts of the trip!  In addition to our resupply at South Camp Hale, a few friends agreed to meet us at Shrine Mountain Inn on the final night of our trip.

After a day of driving and shuttling vehicles on Sunday, we settled in to our hotel in Snowmass Village.  We sorted gear, sat in the hot tub, had a few beers, a great dinner, and generally enjoyed our last night before the trip.

All of my gear

Dave, Tom and Kyle - excited to get going!

Day 1 - Aspen to Margy's via McNamara Hut and Spruce Creek

Dave, Tom, Rob, myself, and Kyle - ready to begin!

Staying in Snowmass enabled an early start.  The day was clear and not too cold.  We arrived at the Hunter Creek trailhead around 7am, and we were skiing short thereafter.  I vaguely remembered the route from 2012 when we had descended this way from McNamara.  We didn't have any problems with route finding, and were soon in the middle of Van Horn Park, enjoying the views of Aspen Highlands.  Light packs (I think everyone's pack was between 30-35 lbs) and light gear (Tom, Rob and Kyle were all on an NNN setup, Dave and I both had Dynafit TLTs and reasonably lightweight skis) enabled us to move pretty efficiently, and by 10:30 we were sitting on the sun-drenched deck of the McNamara Hut enjoying a second breakfast.

Approaching McNamara

We soon departed McNamara, and I was secretly confident that the route to Margy's would pass just as easily, and we would be spending a leisurely afternoon at the hut.  Shortly after departing McNamara, we realized how warm of a day it was as snow was continually sticking to our skis and skins.  This slowed our progress somewhat, as well as the continual dilemma of skins or no skins on flat-ish terrain.  Kyle, Rob and Tom solved this dilemma by leaving their skins on for everything (for the entire rest of the trip).  In addition route finding became more of a challenge as the route between McNamara and Margy's doesn't get traveled often.  We dropped into Woody Creek too soon, and were soon traversing steep slopes in an attempt to get to Woody Creek proper.  We didn't have too many more route finding issues from there, as the cutoff to Spruce Creek was well signed.  But this section had taken us nearly three hours to go 2.5 miles, nearly all of it downhill!  This would be a theme throughout the trip - the downhills can often take as long as the uphills.  The skin up Spruce Creek was a tedious slog, following old tree blazes.  By the time we traversed the south side of Mount Yeckel we were all pretty tired and anxious to get to the hut.  Luckily the last mile was pretty flat and passed quickly.  We reached the hut around 5:00 pm and I think we were all relieved to have the first day behind us.  We shared the hut with a large group of twenty-somethings (aka millennials) and quietly reveled in the glory of having completed such a long day.

Stats for day 1: 12.35 miles, 3,800 ft elevation gain, 9 hours and 35 minutes.  Strava

Day 2 - Margy's to Betty Bear via Granite Lakes and Road 505
In what would become our normal routine, we woke up early, made an efficient breakfast, and were on the sticks by 8am.  We quickly retraced our route from the evening before and made it down to Sawmill Park.  We spent a bit of time figuring out exactly where to exit Sawmill Park, but then enjoyed some very nice low angled skiing for a few miles before we contoured around a couple of small lakes and found the road that would lead us over to Nast and Road 505.

Leaving Margy's

Things had gone well up to this point; good skiing, good weather, and no real route finding issues.  All three of things would end soon after this.  For the next 3.5 hours, we thrashed about through the "Granite Lakes" area, finally winding up at the "Horseshoe Bend Ranch".  With the exception of Aspen and Vail, this was the geographic low point of the trip (8,800 ft elevation) and for myself it was my personal low point.  I remember sitting near the bridge that crossed over the Fryingpan River, thinking how it had just taken us 6 hours to go 8 miles (again, all downhill), wondering how we were going to make it another 7 miles to Betty Bear before dark.  In reality we had gone 10 miles, but still had about 7 miles to go.

Kyle and Rob - ready to tackle the road

We skinned a short ways up to the road, then put skis on our backs and walked Road 505 to the trailhead for Betty Bear.  We had done this route in 2011, so I knew exactly what was to come.  ~5 miles of boring road, followed by a steep climb to the hut.  I was mentally in a bad spot and lagged behind the others.  Oh well, nothing to do but forge on up the road.

The long road to Betty Bear

The weather had cleared up after a small front had moved through when we were back in the Granite Lakes area, and unimpeded by route finding issues we made slow but steady progress up the road.  I caught up to everyone shortly before we left the road for the steep climbing, and gradually my mood began to improve.  In spite of the increased effort from gaining more vertical, I was really enjoying the steep and technical skinning.  This last section passed by quickly, and we were soon on the gentler section that marks the arrival to the hut.  We arrived to at the hut in a surreal snowstorm, and were rewarded for our efforts with the hut completely to ourselves.  This is quite a treat for a group of five!

Stats for day 2: 17.8 miles, 2,800 ft elevation gain, 10 hours and 10 minutes.  Strava


Day 3 - Betty Bear to Uncle Bud's via Hagerman Pass and Turquoise Lake Road
We left again by 8:00 am, and headed for Hagerman Pass.  We had skied to Hagerman on our 2011 trip, and the route was pretty straight forward.  We arrived at the pass in a snowstorm, which quickly passed and as we descended Hagerman Pass to Skinner Hut we were once again treated with sunny skies.

Dave, Rob, Kyle and Tom

We decided to make a stop at Skinner Hut, even though it was about 1/3 of a mile out of our way.  Kyle was the only one who had ever been there before, and it was give us a chance to get in out of the cold and off our feet for a few minutes.  In what seemed to be our route finding challenge of the day, it took us a bit of time to find the correct route to Skinner.  We even descended a ways to the South with no luck.  Eventually we found it, and at 11:30 am took a short break.  We were welcomed at the hut by a group that was there for several days - and apparently they do this every year.  I can understand why - Skinner almost always has availability because it's the longest approach of any 10th Mountain Division Hut.

Skinner Hut - buried deep

After leaving the hut we had a great descent down Glacier Creek, made much easier by the fresh snow from the night before.  From here we had a choice of two different routes to get to Uncle Bud's: either follow the Colorado Trail or take Turquoise Lake Road around to the normal approach to Uncle Bud's.  After seeing the cutoff for the Colorado Trail, we opted for the road.  It was longer, but no trail breaking, and route finding would be easier.  I think this was a good decision, and we arrived at the hut with little drama.

The Colorado Trail.  We didn't take this route.

This was our shortest day (by time) so far!  We even had time to do a little scouting of the next day's route, so Dave, Kyle and I went to scope things out.  I wasn't feeling well and turned back after less than 1/2 a mile, but Dave and Kyle continued on for more than a mile.  This proved to be invaluable in helping our efficiency the next morning.

Uncle Bud's Hut

Day 3 stats: 15.2 miles, 2,800 ft elevation gain,  8 hours 17 minutes.  Strava

Day 4 - Uncle Bud's to Jackal

Up early on day 4

This was it - the long day.  Nothing really made me as nervous as this day.  20+ miles, much of it through terrain that doesn't get traveled very often.  We were up at 5:30, and were moving by 6:30, which was just about first light.  I don't think any of us had any desire to leave in the dark, and it didn't make much sense given that we struggle with route finding when it's light out.  Thanks to Dave and Kyle's scouting from the evening before, we made efficient work up the Colorado trail and were soon traversing the Northeast side of 12,313.  The terrain here is probably one of the more avalanche-exposed portions of the entire Benedict 100.  The Colorado Trail manages to sneak down slopes that stay around 30 degrees, but we were a bit too far east and ended up on steeper terrain.  We didn't observe any signs of instability, and in a few minutes we were in Porcupine Gulch.  We made our way up to the small saddle that separates Porcupine Gulch and Longs Gulch.  The terrain here is spectacular - the entire ridge between Galena Mountain and Homestake Peak was some of the most rugged and wild terrain we encountered.  The descent into Longs Gulch was unexpectedly fun, and soon we were traversing on the Colorado Trail towards Tennessee Pass.

Tom and Rob

The miles rolled by pretty quickly and before noon we had covered nearly nine of the 20+ miles on tap for the day.  We wasted a bit of time trying to find the correct way to drop into Mitchell Creek, but once on the correct route we made good time.  Kyle broke a pole basket in here, and we stopped for a quick field repair.  But it wasn't long before we dropped into the large open area of Mitchell Creek where the old railroad grade was.  Around this time some weather moved through, and we bundled up and fought the wind across Mitchell Creek.  It seemed like one of those slogs that could possibly take a couple of hours, but after only 25-30 minutes we were close to Highway 24 and didn't have much trouble finding a feasible route to cross the road.  With the exception of Road 505 on day 2 (where we didn't see any cars) this was the only road we had to cross, and was the only time during the entire trip that we saw any cars.  We hooked up with the Colorado trail again, and enjoyed another unexpected descent as we dropped into South Camp Hale.

Dropping toward South Camp Hale

The sun was out, we were making good time, our resupply was close, and the route to Jackal was the same one we had done in 2014.  I remember feeling quite relieved at this point, and spirits were high all around.  We were at the cars around 3pm, where we restocked food, switched out some clothes, and were soon on our way to Jackal.  We referred to the final climb as a "Double Betty", referencing the fact that the elevation gain (2,500 ft) to Jackal was about twice of what we did at the end of day 2 on our way to Betty Bear.

Resupply at South Camp Hale

I lagged behind a bit at the start, then moved on ahead as the climb steepened.  No doubt we were all feeling the effects of the day, but everyone handled it pretty well.  We made decent time (again thanks to the light gear and light packs) and before 6 pm we had started the final half-mile traverse to the hut.  It was amazing to look back South to Mitchell Creek (large open area in the picture below) and think that we had been there just a few hours ago.  It was even more mind boggling to think about how we had started at Uncle Bud's hut that morning, ~20 miles away.

Looking South toward Mitchell Creek

This was truly one of the most amazing days that I've had in the mountains.  We moved efficiently over large amounts of complex and varied terrain, had some great skiing under sunny skies, handled some weather that moved through, and made good route finding decisions.

Jackal!

Day 4 stats: 18.8 miles, 3,900 ft elevation gain, 11 hours and 43 minutes  Strava

Day 5 - Jackal to Shrine Mountain Inn (Jay's Cabin) via the High Route
Spirits were high on night 4, and I think we were all feeling good about having the longest day behind us.  The remaining two days traversed relatively familiar terrain - we had done a trip from Camp Hale to Vail two years ago.  That time we went from Jackal to Fowler Hilliard to Shrine Mountain.  We had hoped to do the "High Route" between Jackal and Fowler Hilliard, but ended up on the lower, longer Pearl Creek  route because of weather.  Two days going from Jackal to Shrine Mountain Inn had each been 6+ hour adventures, so I think we were prepared for another long day, as we were skipping Fowler Hilliard and going directly to Shrine Mountain.  Luckily our packs were even lighter because of the resupply and the fact that we had friends meeting us at Shrine Mountain.

Looking back at Pearl Peak from the should of Elk Mountain

We started around 8 am and quickly made our way down to the saddle and began the ascent up Pearl Peak.  Our daily route finding blunders made an early appearance, as we literally went in a circle on our way up Pearl Peak.  We had a good laugh and were eventually traversing the open slopes below Pearl Peak.  I was pretty excited as we crested Pearl Peak and scoped out the route toward Elk Mountain and the rest of the ridge.  The weather wasn't perfect, but it looked like it would hold.  The ridge to Elk Mountain looked more daunting than it turned out to be, and within 45 minutes we were on top of Elk Mountain and on the ridge proper.  It was quite windy but the ridge was fun, and another 30 minutes brought us to the south slope of Sugarloaf Peak.  This was supposed to be the crux of the high route.  We decided the safest route (not to mention the most aesthetic) route was straight over the top of the peak.  The southeast slope (the ridge) is the least steep, and the snow was very stable.  We shouldered our skis and Kyle lead up the 150 ft boot pack to the summit.  This was a great pitch - and really the only "mountaineering" portion of the entire trip.  We skirted down the north side, which had too many rocks to ski, and then put our skis back on at a flat spot north of the summit.  A couple more small bumps and we were soon at Ptarmigan Pass.  For the first time in 5 days we saw more than the ~10 people we had encountered at the huts.  There were a couple of dozens skiers/boarders making laps on Ptarmigan Hill, mostly with the aid of snowmobiles.

Ptarmigan Hill with Avalanche Bowl as seen from Wingle Ridge

We quickly skied down to the saddle separating Wilder Gulch and Wearyman Creek.  This was now familiar terrain, as in 2014 we had (mistakenly) skinned all the way up here trying to find the route to Wingle Ridge.  Although from the map it looked like we might be able to head straight north from the saddle, we traversed Northwest and followed our route from 2014.  Things seemed to go much faster than in 2014 (again - amazing what light gear and packs can do) and soon we were at the saddle below Shrine Mountain, ready to begin the final descent to the hut.  This seemed more arduous than it should have been.  Because of the proximity to the huts there are numerous trails to follow.  We ended up taking a less than optimal route, and found ourselves in a large clearing north of the huts.  By this time I was not feeling well, stopping frequently to fight off coughing fits.  But we soon made our way to the hut, and amazingly we arrived shortly before our friends.  This was our shortest day yet, and it was quite nice to arrive in the mid-afternoon and be able to relax for a bit.

Jay's Cabin

Our friends showed up with fresh food, veggies, and lots of beer and wine (but Mark forgot a sleeping bag!).  After 5 days of snickers, trail mix, and dried fruit the fresh fruit and veggies were a real treat.

Day 5 stats: 11.5 miles, 2,800 ft elevation gain 7 hours 36 minutes  Strava

Day 6 - Shrine Mountain Inn to Vail
The final day dawned clear and cool, and after breakfast burritos we embarked on our final day.  Our crew gratefully handled the cleanup, enabling us to enjoy and efficient and stress free departure.  The route from Vail Pass to Vail is known as the Commando Run.  We had attempted this in 2014, only to be thwarted by a foot of fresh snow that had closed Blue Sky Basin and the back bowls at Vail ski area.  We skied down the road to Red Cliff, and ended our tour at Mango's with beers and burgers.  It was still a great day - but not the ending we had hoped for.  With better weather, snow conditions, and confidence from the previous five days, it felt inevitable that we would be successful.

The route after leaving Shrine Mountain Road

It was a quick ski down Shrine Mountain road, and we soon left the road on the Lime Creek Road.  We generally found a good route to point 11,611 and then traversed over to point 11,710.  At this point we were quite close to the top of Pete's lift in Blue Sky Basin, and we saw a few skiers that had come from the ski area and were descending the bowl Northeast of point 11,710.  The views of the Gore Range here were spectacular, and we could see our high point for the day in the distance - Red Mountain (aka Siberia Peak).  We enjoyed great skiing on the north facing slopes down to Two Elk Pass, took a quick break for lunch, and then began our final ascent of the trip up to Red Mountain.

Starting our final ascent up Siberia Peak

We were right on the border of the ski area (Outer Mongolia Bowl), but we didn't see very many people.  This South facing climb was in the sun, and things were warming up and getting sticky.  We topped out around 1:30, and debated about our final route choice.  The true Commando Run doesn't drop into the ski area at this point, but rather traverses the top of the East Vail Chutes and follows a road cut down for several miles until eventually ending in Vail.  None of us really had any desire to slog on a mushy road for several miles, so we opted to descend on the regular trails of the ski area.  This brought us back to reality and the thousands of people skiing Vail that day.  It was an interesting juxtaposition to finish our trip in a crowded ski area, when we had only crossed paths with fewer than maybe 30 people the last six days.

And just like that, we had finished.  We had gotten separated at the bottom (too many people) but we soon regrouped and went for burgers and beers (I can't remember where).  It was a bit surreal that we had actually done it, and I think the effort of the previous six days, combined with the jolt of being around so many people meant we had a pretty mellow celebration.  There was the inevitable talk of "what's next", but nothing specific was planned.  I was content to savor what we had just done.

We eventually called an Uber and went back to our car in West Vail.  We piled in and drove to South Camp Hale to pickup Kyle's car.  Kyle and I drove back through Leadville.  It was a little bittersweet as Kyle and his family were moving to Mexico for the next three years, and I knew this would be the last hut trip with him for awhile.  At least we made it a good one!

Day 6 stats - 14.5 miles,  2,400 ft elevation gain, 7 hours or 2 minutes  Strava

Retrospective
The Benedict 100 unfolded just about perfectly.  We nailed the logistics, generally had good weather and snow conditions, no gear failures, no major route finding issues (although we tried!), and we enjoyed both the solitude as well as the meeting of other like-minded people at the huts.

I think we did an excellent job of packing light and using lightweight gear.  Benedict 100 isn't particularly demanding in terms of skiing, as evidenced by the fact that Rob, Tom, and Kyle all used NNN gear.  Although there were times I was amazed by their skill on these, and personally I was quite happy to have an AT setup.  I think the Dynafit TLT6 boots that I used were perfect.  I wouldn't want anything heavier (like a Scarpa F1 or Maestrale), but skiing with a pack I don't think I could get away with anything lighter.  I used a pair of Hagan Cirrus skis.  These are 75 underfoot with a 113 tip.  The weigh around 1kg (177cm).  The bindings I have are the plum race 170.  The skis worked well, even when we encountered deep powder.  But I think if I could do it again I would try for something a little wider underfoot - something in the ~85 range.  But I would still try to keep the weight at ~1kg.  From what I can tell as of this writing (2019) there are more options for this type of ski than there were when we did this (2016).  The plum bindings also worked fine - I never had a problem with pre-release and they held up fine with my weight with a pack (I weigh about 185, and my pack was about 30 lbs).  The bindings did seem to ice up more than my Dynafit bindings, but it didn't cause any major issues, and the weight savings was nice.

We were very meticulous about the gear we brought.  My complete list is here.  Before food and water, my pack weighed ~15 lbs.  We were also very careful about food - bringing mostly dried and dehydrated meals.  Counting calories also helped keep the weight down, and I think we planned on the following: 600-700 calories for breakfast, 1200-1500 for the trail (our days were long), and 1200-1500 for dinners.  I would say we actually ate really well, and even with being very conscious of weight savings we had high quality meals.  Certainly the resupply at South Camp Hale on day 4 helped, as well as meeting our friends at Shrine Mountain Inn on Day 5.

I believe the Benedict 100 has become more popular in recent years, and in 2019 10th Mountain Division Hut Association started offering a special Benedict 100 lottery.  If you are interested in doing the Benedict 100 route in the summary, check out Hut-Run-Hut.