Eiseman Hut was built in 1996 and the trailhead is smack in the middle of Vail and climbs up the opposing valley from the ski area. It sits at an elevation of 11,180 feet and poses a serious challenge to reach it with a trail traveling almost 7 miles and 2,900 feet of climbing to get there.
Our mixed group of skiers and snowshoers made the trek in tons of new snow that had fallen a few days before over the MLK holiday weekend, with fresh snow falling on us as we hiked in. On our rest day, the snowshoers explored a nearby peak (12,345ft, if I remember correctly) and the skiers took two laps down below the hut totaling about 1,500 ft vertical for the day. The skies finally cleared up a little that evening, granting us a view to an amazing sunset over Vail, Beaver Creek, Holy Cross Wilderness, and Flat Tops Wilderness, and an even more amazing sunrise the next morning.
The trip was filled with great conversation, lots of amazing food, threats of maple syrup shots, and some extremely dysfunctional game playing!
Our descent from the hut split the group - the 6 skiers descended down below the hut down the Red Sandstone Trail route, following a set of forest roads back out to an alternate trailhead (where we left two vehicles). This yielded an almost all downhill ski of almost 9 miles, some of which was on a groomed road used by snowmobile outfitters. The snowshoers descended the same Spraddle Creek route we all ascended.
