Christmas Eve at the Fritz Benedict Hut outside Aspen.
For Christmas this year Anna-Lisa and I decided to change things up by heading over to Aspen and skinning into the Benedict Huts on Christmas Eve. Cozied up in a backcountry hut 6 miles from civilization made for a unique and seemingly appropriate way to spend the holiday.
Nestled in the hills southeast of Aspen at 11,000 feet, the Fritz and Fabi Benedict Huts are some of the most recently constructed in the 10th Mountain Division Hut system. Built in 1997, they were named in honor of the late Fritz Benedict and his wife Fabi. Fritz, an architect stationed with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale in the 1940s, eventually settled in Aspen and went on to design dozens of homes and buildings throughout the town. In addition he developed the master plans for Vail, Snowmass, and Breckenridge ski areas and is considered to be the “father” of the 10th Mountain Division Hut system itself. There are two huts at the Benedict site atop Smuggler Mountain, one for Fritz and one for Fabi, with the former being a 10-person community hut and the latter, a 6-person hut which must be booked by a single party.
Skinning along the Smuggler Mountain Road and trail system. Anna-Lisa was all smiles for most of the approach.
Map of the entire approach from Aspen, which we clocked at just over 6 miles and 2,800 ft of elevation gain.
Feeling festive as dusk came and went on this Silent Night. Not far to go now…
Upon arriving at the Fritz Hut we introduced ourselves to the other couple – Eric and Lauren – who had the same idea we did, making for a total of 4 of us in the 10-person hut. Luckily we all hit if off right away and wound up playing cards and drinking whiskey snow cocktails well into the night. Then about 3 hours in we realized that Anna-Lisa had corresponded with Eric on a few engineering projects in the recent past. Good stuff.
Our private room with a view.
A fondue dinner, Christmas lights and wool slippers rounded out the evening perfectly.
In the morning we awoke to snow falling outside and after stoking the fire, turned to coffee and Bailey’s and prepping our pancakes and bacon Christmas breakfast.
Much of the interior of the Fritz Hut on Christmas morning. Being one of the more uniquely designed huts in the system seems like a solid ode to Fritz Benedict’s architectural prowess.
One of the best parts about hut trips is having a full kitchen to work with. All you have to haul in is the food itself.
The hearth.
Tough to write about the Benedict Huts without including a picture of the outhouse. 180 degree floor-to-ceiling glass make for quite the view as you take care of business.
After cleaning up and getting the hut all buttoned up, we clicked into our skis and enjoyed the 2,800 foot descent back down to Aspen. Fittingly, it just kept on snowing.
On the out with the snowflakes getting bigger. A White Christmas indeed.
Cheers, and Merry (belated) Christmas!
Looks like an awesome hut! But maybe not a lot of good skiing around it?
Yes correct. Not much skiing out of the hut compared to others. It’s more of a destination to experience the hut itself.