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Pear Lake Ski hut
#9996 01/12/11 07:03 PM
Joined: Nov 2010
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Does anybody have advice for a snowshoe trip to the Pear Lake ski hut? I know the hut will be full, so we are planning to camp near one of the lakes. Probably make it a 2 nighter for some exploring.

Re: Pear Lake Ski hut
rpm #10006 01/13/11 12:28 AM
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Hi rpm,

It sounds like you couldn't get reservations for the Pear Lake hut. Too bad! You might consider this: Travel to the hut, and camp close by. You could bum some space inside to warm up by the stove and prepare your meals, but camp outside. Last time I was there that is what someone did. And you might get lucky if there are any no-shows.

All I can add is that it is a pretty good slog all the way to Pear through the snow. Make sure everyone in your party is in good shape. Even people going into the hut are supposed to take full winter camping gear, because some don't make it -- due either to foul weather (with whiteout, it would be almost impossible to find), or due to people being out of shape.

The time I got to stay inside, it was very noisy at night. A single room with about 12 beds.... people coughing, snoring (and worse!), getting up to use restroom. If I went again, I'd definitely take earplugs! The one advantage, though, is you can warm up and dry out inside.

I went in on X-C skis (rented, with worn out skins). They were probably faster than snow shoes, but nearly uncontrollable on the descent through heavy snow in the forest. I fell so many times, I am glad I got out without twisting a knee or worse.

Re: Pear Lake Ski hut
Steve C #10025 01/13/11 05:29 PM
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One good thing about winter is you can set up camp any place, just dig a flat spot. Do many people camp at the other lakes in the area (Heather, Aster, Emerald)? I was thinking of camping in one of those locations and take a side trip to the ski hut.

Of course this all depends on the weather.

Re: Pear Lake Ski hut
rpm #10032 01/13/11 09:25 PM
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Heather would be a fine place to camp -- you can certainly find some flat spots on the snow. And it will cut off a significant amount of time on the leg carrying all your gear. It's nice, because once you get to the hump, Heather is just down the (fairly steep) slope.

I have never been down to Aster Lake. Each time I've traveled through there we were bent on moving along. I think technically camping is not permitted at Heather -- at least it was years ago. But of course that is during the summer hiking season.

When I stayed in the hut (2 nights), we climbed up to "Ski Alta" peak (11,328') nearly east of Pear Lk. Alta Pk itself is pretty inaccessible from that side in the snow.

Here's a map courtesy of GMap4. Really love the resource -- you can move the map around, zoom in and out, change to satellite, etc, etc. Here's a link to show how to set up such a map. (It also supports a GPS track, but that's too technical for me.)



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