Tomichi Dome

  • Tomichi Dome
  • 3497 m
  • Primary factor 709 m
  • Location: North 38.48487, West 106.52888 (GPS at the summit)
  • Colorado, USA
  • Difficulty: YDS class 2
  • Climbed: March 30, 2016

Information:

How to get there: Locate Hwy. 50 running East to West (from Pueblo south of Colorado Springs). One should drive north on Colorado 887, this road is located approximately 20 miles east of Gunnison. More precisely, the turnoff is very close to mile-post 176.
Drive this road 6.1 miles, and find parking on your left hand side at location, N38.51093, W106.54147, elevation about 2690 meter.
Route description:
Walk a few meter back along the road, then enter an open field. When we were there, the snow covered the fence in this place, providing an easy access. Ski gently uphill as you cross this field and approach a tree free, steeper hillside. Cross uphill here, then turn more left and ascend the broad ridge passing through forest. This forest is quite skiable and has some more open patches here and there. The hillside gradually steepens somewhat, then you break out in a top section that is open, ie. very few trees. Above this section, the hillside sort of abruptly becomes almost flat and forested. A regular sprouce forest grows across the top plateau. Skiing is quite easy as one continues to climb very gently until the highest point is reached. There is a wooden sign as well as a small box (trail register?) attached to a tree.
Comments:
We had skied for more than a week in Copper Mountain, before travelling to Gunnison. Pål and I drove around 0800 and we were ready to ski at 0910. We skied uphill on crust that broke, but still made reasonable progress. Surprisingly, we discovered the biggest forest on the very top. Arriving at the high point at 1140, we carefully explored the various signs from previous visits.
Leaving at 1200 noon, the ski down was not great, too many trees and quite unpredictable snow prevented this. In the last steep hill, Pål broke through and ended up loosing a pole so badly that a large excavation effort was needed in order to recover it. We were back at the car at 1250, a successful trip to a rather unimpressive hill.

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