Everything guests ask us, answered straight. Still curious? Email info@opushut.com.
Pick your dates and your room (or the whole hut, or individual spots) on the booking page, and pay in full when you book. Once you start checkout, your space is held for 15 minutes while you finish — enough time to type a credit card number, not enough for someone else to swoop in. You'll get a confirmation email right away with all the details, and a reminder before your trip.
Life happens — another obligation comes up, plans change, and you just can't make it anymore. We don't issue cash refunds for discretionary cancellations — we issue credits, in the form of a gift certificate valid for three years. How much depends on how far ahead you cancel:
To cancel or change a reservation, email us — we handle it personally.
During the winter, we will let you cancel or change your reservation under certain conditions as forecast by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Due to the shifting nature of the forecast zone borders, you can pick any zone within 10 miles of Opus that is most relevant to your planned approach.
This policy is designed to give you flexibility when making plans to come to Opus — however, you must always make your own safety decisions in the backcountry. And please understand that you are accepting some amount of weather-related risk when choosing to come up to Opus: we are located in an occasionally hard to access location, and outside of what is detailed below, we are not able to make exceptions to issue refunds or credits.
We will issue you a 100% credit for a future stay in the next 12 months under the following conditions:
Very rarely we may choose to close the hut entirely if we don't think it is safe for our staff to travel to or from the hut. Under this scenario, we will send you a 100% refund to the credit card you originally booked with.
To cancel or change a reservation, email us — we handle it personally.
We will let you move your reservation to another day within 28 days of your original reservation, as long as we have space available, under the following condition:
We will also let you move your reservation for any reason to another day within 14 days of your original reservation, as long as we have space available. Some reasons for this might include:
To move a reservation, email us — we handle it personally.
Winter dates are in high demand, so instead of a booking scramble when reservations open, we run a lottery. Submit your ranked trip requests — as many as you like, ordered by preference — on the lottery page during the submission window. The drawing is weighted by guest-nights so bigger, longer trips aren't at a disadvantage. Your card is charged only if you win. Didn't win? Your requests roll to the waitlist, and open booking follows for whatever's left.
Add yourself on the waitlist page with your email, a date range, and what kind of space you want. Whenever previously booked space opens up, everyone whose criteria match gets one email in a daily 6am batch — same moment for everyone, then it's first-come, first-served through the normal booking flow. No holds, no line-jumping, no phone tag.
We do — any dollar amount, delivered by email, redeemable at checkout toward any stay. They're also how we issue cancellation credits, so if you've canceled a trip you already have one. Buy or redeem on the gift certificates page.
Bring: a headlamp (for the walk to the sauna, and reading after lights-out), hut slippers if you have a cozy pair you love (we have loaners), your lunch and trail food for the days, toiletries and sunscreen, and a water bottle — we have filtered water at the hut.
Leave home: your sleeping bag and any bedding — we provide everything, travel light. Anything power-hungry (phone chargers are fine; hair dryers, not so much — we're solar-powered). And alcohol: the OPUS is a licensed tavern, so personal alcohol isn't permitted by state law. The bar has you covered.
No guest WiFi — and that's on purpose. It's an aesthetic choice we make so you can unplug, bond with your friends and family, and enjoy the remote atmosphere. There's a guest iPad with iMessage and email so you can tell the folks back home you arrived safely — just ask a hut host.
There's no cell service at the hut (occasionally a single bar if you walk 100 yards uphill — maybe enough for a text). For real emergencies, the hut has a satellite phone and a text number that reaches the hut hosts on duty — both are in your pre-arrival email. Please save those for actual emergencies, not check-in calls.
Check-in is 2:00pm and check-out is 10:00am. Arriving early? You're welcome to drop your bags in the entry area and go hiking or hang out in the common room while we finish cleaning. Room assignments are on the chalkboard in the entryway. If you'll arrive after 7pm, give us a heads up so we keep dinner warm and don't worry you've gotten lost.
We love dogs. It's $55 flat per dog for your stay, with a maximum of four dogs at the hut. We have dog beds and a couple of spare water bowls (though it's easier if you bring your own). Please walk them a couple hundred yards from the hut for bathroom breaks and bag anything closer. And keep an eye on them outside — we're in the woods, with porcupines, coyotes, and other wildlife around. Don't leave dogs unattended outdoors.
Absolutely — kids generally love the hut. Meals for children 12 and under are half price ($35/night). One policy to know: children under 5 are welcome only on whole-hut bookings, so your family has the run of the place and other guests keep their quiet nights.
The wood-fired sauna is fired up most evenings — steam and cleanse after a day out. A few basics: rinse before you go in, sit on a towel, and keep sessions reasonable so everyone gets a turn. Swimwear is the norm at busy times; coordinate with your fellow guests. Bring your headlamp for the walk back — the stars are part of the amenity.
You can drive to within a quarter mile of the hut on Ophir Pass — from the Highway 550/Silverton side, almost any SUV will do (a Subaru Outback is fine; skip the sedan). The Ophir/Telluride side requires a real high-clearance 4×4. Or hike in: the Columbine Lake trail to the Treeline Traverse is about 5.5 miles and 1,900 feet of gain, or come all the way from Telluride (roughly 14 miles) for spectacular high-alpine views.
One local quirk: marmots around the parking area occasionally chew on cars. We keep tarps and rope under a pine tree in the lot so you can wrap your car up like a diaper — about half our guests do. Full details, maps, and the parking pin are on Getting Here.
In winter the road closes and the hut is ski access only — a backcountry tour through terrain that is prone to avalanche conditions. Groups that aren't familiar and comfortable with travel in avalanche terrain are strongly advised to hire one of the local guide services for the trip in. Route details, trailhead info, and guide contacts are on Getting Here.
Having an experienced guide accompany you on your trip can mean finding powder stashes, exploring some of the off-the-beaten paths in the summer, or sharing interpretive knowledge about the local terrain and geography. All of course, while providing a safe and fun atmosphere for the duration of your trip.
Inquire with one of the local guide services for more information on a winter or summer trip:
Lights out at 10pm. We're off-grid and solar-powered, so power is limited — and your hut-mates have early alpine starts. If you turn a light on, turn it off when you're done, and save the late reading for your headlamp.
Pack it out. All guests are responsible for their own personal trash — everything that comes into the backcountry with you leaves with you. We haul enough down the mountain already.