A Hut-to-Hut Ski Tour in Colorado’s Backcountry

“It looks like Canada,” said Nate Disser, our guide, indicating the lofty, snow-cloaked peaks around us. Later that day, when our group of 10 had skied to another high-alpine basin where craggy rock monoliths jutted up from ridgelines, Mr. Disser noted a resemblance to the Italian Dolomites. Yet we were in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, a spectacular place in its own right.

The San Juans are particularly jagged and steep. Starting in the mid-1800s, miners tore into these peaks hunting for silver and gold, and the remnants of their industry still scar the land. This week, we were hunting only for powdery stashes to ski, and our tracks would disappear with the next snowfall.

We were on the second day of a five-day trip called the Million Dollar Traverse, a hut-to-hut backcountry ski tour. (The name comes from the so-called Million Dollar Highway, a serpentine stretch of U.S. Route 550 that runs between the Colorado towns of Ouray and Silverton.) The comparisons to Canada and Europe were apt in another sense, too, as guided ski trips like the one we were on are common in those locales.

I’m an avid backcountry skier, who usually prefers self-organized outings. But more than 20 years ago, I skied the Haute Route, a hut-to-hut trek in France and Switzerland, with a guided group, and I was curious to see what a version of it would be like closer to home.

San Juan Mountain Guides, owned by Mr. Disser, began offering the traverse a couple of winters ago. The trip includes four nights in three privately owned huts, with six to eight miles of skiing and some 3,500 feet of elevation gain between each one. Though it’s hard work to climb up and over the mountain passes, the payoff is descending thousands of feet of untracked snow among soul-stirring scenery.

“We’re such a D.I.Y. culture,” said Mr. Disser. “In Europe or Canada, you go to a hut, you get a guide.” But if the Million Dollar Traverse is any indication, the concept of going with a guide may be catching on here. As of mid-November, all slots were booked for the trip, which is offered five times in spring 2024.

Most backcountry huts in the United States are simple, self-service structures, with skiers packing their own sleeping bags and food, and melting snow on a wood stove for water. But several newer huts clustered in the mountains between Ouray and Silverton have staff on hand to provide meals, beds with blankets, running water and indoor bathrooms. This also means you can…