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.
