The Participants:

Myself, Heidi Ahrens, 6 month pregnant with significant sciatic pain because of the pregnancy.  I have these used, cheap, old, thin, track skis that made me skate the whole way in the tracks.

My husband Erik, almost 40, who carried all our gear and pulled our Kinder Shuttle

Ahrenskeaff #1, Cora, our 2 1/2 year old daughter.

Our Sherpa, Lara, my best friend who carried all the food and took care of Cora on the way because I could not bend over.

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Last weekend we drove to Crested Butte, Colorado in the middle of a blinding blizzard to ski to a backcountry hut.  Needless to say, the drive was difficult.  We could not see the lines on the road, and turning on the high beams only created more of a whiteout. Thankfully, the snow let up momentarily in Gunnison before resuming on the last leg up to Crested Butte. When we got to our hotel there was already a fire roaring and we were all able to get some sleep. In the morning, when we woke up we ate the continental breakfast and organized our gear. We stayed at the Cristiana Guest Haus .  It was a clean and mountain town hotel with friendly staff and a low key feel.

Since the continental breakfast didn’t come with eggs I had to stop and get some protein, since I can’t sustain myself on grains alone. We discovered the most amazing bagels this side of Montreal at Izzy’s, which is just off of the main street. They had great service along with atmosphere and wonderful coffee.  By the time we actually hit the trailhead it was noon. As we drove four miles up valley we could see the mountain faces rising above us and giving us a glimpse of their rocky sheerness. The weather seemed tolerable compared to our drive into town. The sky was slightly overcast but the weather was mild, but it soon turned to a windy, gray and the snow on the ground took on a downright malevolent texture.  Colorado has been hit by some really weird dust storms that turn the snow a startling burnt sienna color. It makes for interesting color contrasts, but it also created a disheartening melt ‘y’, icy, slushy mess that began to stick to the bottom of our skis.  It took us 5 ½ hours to cover the approximately 3.5 miles to our hut.  As snow began to adhere to the bottom of the Kinder Shuttle, it started to continuously tip over.  Cora had moments of frustration, mostly because to the tipping and she cried herself to sleep once (she also managed to ski a half mile). Erik had to break his own trail for the final half mile so that the sled would stay upright. This proved to be excruciatingly slow as he found that he could only take between thirty to fifty steps at a time before having to rest. We were all tremendously relieved to get to the hut.

Since I was pretty useless taking care of anyone on the trail I made sure that everyone had a good snack (fruit, crackers and salami, and fruit) and hot drinks before we cooked dinner.  We stayed in the larger and more luxurious hut which had running water, a microwave and radiant heat.  We had intentions of staying the more rustic log cabin, but the care taker led us to this mansion of a hut (bigger and crafted with better construction than our own home) and we could hardly refuse with our exhaustion and dream of our separate, comfortable beds.

The evening went very smoothly except for Cora’s refusal to use the outhouse (“It’s stinky!”).  We slept warmly and soundly and ate a hardy breakfast.  Erik finished a cinnamon roll, sausage, huge dry multi-grain pancakes, hot drinks, grapefruit juice, but could not quite make himself eat his left over dinner that he had promised Lara he would eat so she would not have to carry it back out.  We left the cabin at 10:00 a.m. It took us four hours to get back including a long lunch break.  The sky was clear and blue, it was mostly warm in the sun and we enjoyed the ski back.

When we got to Crested Butte we visited a good coffee shop, Camp4coffee, that had the best Chai this side of San Francisco (look for the old license plates that are plastered all over the exterior).   The drive back home went smoothly, even though we were all tired and slightly sun stroked, and therefore cranky.

Along the way, Cora offered Erik a drink of her Tomato juice and he mumbled something to her because he was asleep.  We both thought he said yes, so she uncapped the juice and handed it to him.  Because of the position of his hand, he poured the whole juice onto his lap, which was covered by the map.  It created a lot of laughter and Lara had a hard time keeping her cool while driving.  On our way back to Carbondale we took a short cut along winding, picturesque 92. I was nauseous for 24 hours afterwards, but impressed by the views.  A stop in Peonia for dinner was a great idea, since we discovered a good restaurant, the Flying Fork Café, which surprised us since we did not really have intentions of eating fancy fair.  We were very out of place in our ski gear and sunburned face (Erik has this weird Red Crescent tan line on his forehead) amongst the romantic couples.

This trip would not have been possible for us without Lara.  She helped so much with Cora that you would think that she was her mother.  It is amazing to be injured and pregnant and still be able to discover these amazing paradises.  The surrounding mountains, rock faces, valleys and hills were absolutely stunning.  The aspen trees were really beautiful to look at while we struggled with our skis.

It is so important to do the things you love while pregnant. It is great to have friends that step in for you.

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Specs:   3.5 miles of virtually flat Nordic skiing (not groomed), 9,500 foot elevation 16-20 $ per person, low avalanche risk, Reservation required.  For more information visit the Nordic center.

There are two different cabins with different amenities but both have the basic heat, bed, water, cook wear, outhouse, stove.

Heidi

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We still have some Bridgedale Socks as giveaway.  Sign up for our newsletter or share a story for your chance to win these amazing socks.

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I also wanted to let you know about these events:

Go Green Expo, the largest environmentally-focused business and consumer show will be in New York City April 17-19 and in Atlanta, June 26-28, 2009.