High huts: Volunteers are the backbone of Mount Tahoma ski lodgings

MomSeattle · DadSeattle · SPI · MySeattlePix · My account

Local

US/World

Sports

Business

A&E

Life

Comics

Photos

Opinion

Blogs

Buy Ads

NWsource

February 20, 1997

High huts: Volunteers are the backbone of Mount Tahoma ski lodgings

By TOM PAULSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A Cascade mix of rain and snow was falling in the dark outside the hut. Inside was a flurry of talk, ranging from outdoor sports and personal histories to heated debates on politics and the media.

The situation -- one recent evening on a windy, snow-covered ridge southeast of Mount Rainier across the Nisqually River Valley -- was precarious.

Cognac and wine after dinner -- a just-add-water bag of freeze-dried stroganoff -- had perilously loosened lips inside "high hut" -- the most elevated abode in the Mount Tahoma Trails Association ski-hut system. A propane stove hissed angrily.

"You can't tell me the media doesn't have a liberal agenda," said Pat Fives, a board member for Mount Tahoma Trails and one of our hosts that evening, jabbing his finger.

OK. We won't. The photographer and I could see there was no escape.

Lloyd Richmond, another volunteer with Mount Tahoma, just sat there looking amused. Wet snow kept falling outside in the pitch black.

Meryl Schenker, the photographer and the only woman in the hut, began trying a variety of tactics to detour a conversation that appeared headed for disaster. More wine, anybody? Can we talk about something else?

Eventually, we wore ourselves out -- arguing, laughing, telling jokes. Lloyd went to bed early and immediately began snoring like a chain saw. Pat and I stayed up a little later, arguing for sport and listening to his hand-held ham radio.

Such is the communal nature of sharing an evening with people you just met in the only free ski-hut system in the United States.

"It's the only one that we know of anyway," said John Cornell, association president. The volunteer-run ski hut system offers some 100 miles of trail, situated mostly on state land near the Nisqually entrance to Mount Rainier National Park.

Reservations and a $25 deposit per person are required to stay overnight in the three huts and one yurt in the Mount Tahoma system, but you get the deposit back if you show up.

Of the 100 miles of ski trail, some of which is on Champion timber and U.S. Forest Service land, anywhere from 15 to 30 miles is likely to be groomed by the association's Sno-Cats and snowmobiles. Trail elevations range from 2,200 feet to more than 7,000 feet above sea level.

Richmond, a retired Boeing engineer, works about four full days a week grooming trail and maintaining the snow machines. Many others, such as Cornell and Fives, volunteer as ski patrol members, maintenance workers and administration staffers.

The other privately run cross-country ski-hut systems or backcountry cabins charge a fee and promise not to make you deal with problems greater than deciding what to eat, where to ski tomorrow and how to dry your clothing.

But only at the Mount Tahoma system can you find such shelter for free.

For some, the notion of climbing miles uphill on skis only to arrive at a small cabin you have to share with strangers is not going to sound like much fun. For those with a more European sense of personal adventure, it can be great fun and a good way to meet people.

The Mount Tahoma Trails Association, still suffering some growing pains, is the only ski-hut system that you can use and also help run. It can always use more volunteers, more money and more attention.