2025 Hut Trips
Hut Trips are a place to grow your skills —by learning to write your own forecast and use observations to set your foundation for decision making.
They are a place to build community with other women who are also rad skiers, process oriented, safety conscious, and all about having a good time.
These programs are Grounding Truth favorites and we hope you can join us for a magical week in the Teannaway Valley!
Alumni Hut Trip
January 12- 17, 2025
6 spots, 2 guides
Includes:
Guiding/Instruction from Julz
AIARE Course Leader, WEMT, AMGA Certified Assistant Ski Guide
All meals at the hut (with organic and dietary conscientious meal planning)
Possible AIARE 2 Certificate (TBD)
Access to a wood fired sauna
$2300 - $3000 sliding scale
WOMEN+ AIARE 2
February 23-27, 2025
12 spots, 2 guides/instructors, 1 hut keeper, 2 huts, lots of space!
Includes:
Guiding/Instruction from Julz & Jodi
AMGA Certified Assistant Ski Guides & AIARE Avalanche Educators
6:1 guide to mentee ratio for high quality education
All meals at the hut (with organic and dietary conscientious meal planning)
Access to a wood fired sauna
$2000 - $2500 sliding scale for GT Alumni
The setting of Fortune Peak Huts allows for an incredible mountain retreat-like experience, with a wide variety of terrain that will provide a good challenge and encourage creativity in tour-planning.
Immediately above camp are the Esmeralda Peaks, Koppen Mountain, Teanaway Mountain, and Iron Peak. These mountains offer everything from protected storm skiing in the trees to 2,000'+ couloirs. Perched just east of the cascade crest at the confluence of cold eastern air and moisture-laden storms rolling in off the pacific, this part of the cascades is colder and sunnier than the mountains to the west. So the odds are pretty good for high quality turns!
Accommodations include a barrel sauna and a weatherport style hut set up to provide a comfortable escape from the winter elements– can you say dreamy? Your guide team will keep the wood stove cranking out the heat and drying out your gear for tomorrow's adventures. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided and we will all take turns pitching in on the cooking.
This experience is as much about fostering community and empowering women’s voices in outdoor spaces as it is about avalanche education, skiing quality snow, and riding aesthetic lines. We look forward to sharing the magic of the mountains with you!
Sample Itinerary
*Option to stay at an AirBNB on Day 0 to pack bags and meet the team. Additional cost dependant on numbers and accomodations.
Day 1 Approach:
We will meet at the 29 Pines Sno-Park about 30 min north of Cle Elum, WA. From there we will pack up our gear on the snowmobiles and begin moving up the valley. Our gear will go all the way to the hut and we will finish the commute to camp with a 4-mile/600’vert skin directly to camp or by climbing an objective or two along the way and descending into camp.
Day 2 Tour:
After a wholesome and hearty breakfast and packing lunches, we’ll discuss conditions before getting out into the field for a full day of touring. We’ll ease into the trip with a more mellow lap or two to get our legs under us before venturing out into whatever terrain is appropriate for the team and conditions of the day! We’ll end the day with some sauna and appetizers before dropping into dinner and our debrief of the day.
Day 3-4 Tours:
Our next full tour days will provide more opportunities for participants to take on leadership roles with supervision and feedback from mentors. Options exist for a variety of ski options, including: 2,000’ couloirs to gladed tree skiing. As will become tradition, we’ll end the day with a sauna and appetizers, a quality debrief of the day, and a delicious shared meal.
Day 5 Tour and Exit:
After breakfast and packing up our overnight gear, we’ll head out for one last half day tour. Around midday, we’ll come back to the hut for a final lunch and celebration before we exit the field, and begin our journeys onwards.
What is included:
4-night hut stay
3:1 max mentee to mentor ratio
High quality instruction, mentorship, and feedback.
Meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert) for the duration of the trip, excluding 1st breakfast and last day dinner, and alcoholic beverages (All dietary restrictions will be provided for. The food will be high quality and nutritious!)
Gear portering in and out of camp
4-mile snowmobile shuttle, shortening the approach/exit
Evening saunas
What is not included:
Extra snacks
Personal Gear and kit (Equipment list attached below. Include personal backcountry ski/split and safety equipment.)
Alcoholic beverages
Bedding (bring a warm sleeping bag)
Cancellation Policy
Cancellations must be submitted to Grounding Truth in writing. The effective cancellation date is the date upon which Grounding Truth receives written notice. If written notice is not received, amounts paid will be forfeited. Cancellations will be refunded based on the following schedule:
Within 24 hours of booking – full refund
More than 60 days before departure – full refund minus deposit
30 – 60 days before departure – 25% refund
Less than 30 days before departure – no refund will be issued
Travel insurance is highly recommended. Most insurance policies are required to be purchased within 21 days of your program deposit.
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It’s an insulated tunnel tent structure, with windows and a door for venting. There are 8 bunks with memory foam mattresses, a wood stove, a “mudroom” area for coats and packs, and a full service kitchen. The FS pit toilet outside is the bathroom, and there’s a sauna next to the hut.
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The focus is on mentorship —which means, 3 full days of touring and 2 half days of touring.
Each group will determine the appropriate objectives for the group and we will do our best to accommodate everyones needs and desires.
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Fortune Peak offers a 4 mile sled tow along the cross country ski trail, and then they will drop us off to skin the final 4 miles of flattish and scenic FS road. Fortune Peak brings all ovenight gear and food to the hut on snow mobiles, so we only need to carry a small daypack.