General Policy
- Check in time is 2:00 pm, and Checkout time is 10:00 AM. You’re usually welcome to arrive a little early or leave a little late, and leave your stuff in the entry area. We just ask that you are out of your rooms by the official times so we have time to clean.
- Any changes in reservations must be made 30 days in advance to arrival date, cancellations within 30 days of the arrival date will not be given credit. No refunds
- An 80% credit towards future hut stays will be given for cancellations made more than 30 days from arrival.
- Groups that are not familiar and comfortable with travel in mountainous terrain prone to avalanche conditions are advised to make use of one of the local guide services for assistance in getting to the hut.
- Dog Policy – Dogs are allowed at the OPUS Hut for $55/night/dog, and we ask that you book a private room if bringing a dog, since dorm spaces are potentially shared accomodations.
- Alcohol: Because the OPUS is a licensed tavern in the state of Colorado, any personal alcohol is not permitted at the hut.
Winter Cancelation Policies
- 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 flexability when making plans to come to Opus. However, you must always make your own safety decisions in the backcountry.
- Please understand that you are accepting some amount of weather related risk when choosing to come up to Opus. We are located in an occationally 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
- If either the rating for tomorrow or the projected rating for the next day is high or extreme.
- If the rating for yesterday was high or extreme
- If an avalanche watch or avalanche warning is in effect.
- If either Red Mountain Pass or Ophir Pass Road (the two approaches) are closed as of 11am on the day of your arrival.
- If you are staying at the hut and the forecast for tomorrow or the next day is projected to be high or extreme, and you want to leave early, we will credit you for the remainder of your stay.
We will let you move you reservation to another day within 28 days of your original reservation as long as we have space available under the following condition
- The rating is considerable on your arrival date, and you’d feel more comfortable coming up on a different day
Lastly, we will let you move you 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
- Heavy snow on the day of your arrival that you think could impact navigation on the way in
- You have some travel trouble and arrive later than you expect
- You want to fit your approach around a coming storm
- You get sick and can’t make it
- You book early or late in the season and there are low snow conditions on your original date of arrival
- e.g. Your reservation is for 3/20, but your flight is canceled. You can come up on 4/1 instead, provided we have space
- e.g. Your reservation is for 3/20, but there’s a storm coming and you’d rather come up early, you can move to 3/17 instead, provided we have space.
Vary 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 your originally booked with.
Hut Etiquette
- All guests are responsible for their own personal trash, pack it in, pack it out.
- Lights out at 10 PM – solar power is limited, respect other hut guests.
- By state law – Alcoholic beverages not purchased at the hut, are not allowed in the hut.
- Leave boots, climbing skins and wet gear in the entry, boot liners can be dried behind the wood stoves.
- Please keep personal gear out of the Living area.
- Please keep your food contained and organized in the storage bins provided.
- Limited cool food storage is available at the hut, plan accordingly.
- Please conserve water, there is limited supply from roof collection.
- Please keep skis, poles and snowboards outside.