Park Cone North Couloir 4.16.16

Mid April’s big storm was an upslope, which meant that areas like the Front Range and Sangre de Cristos got a huge dose of snow. Upslopes also mean that in our neck of the woods, we get mostly skunked when the winds come out of the east. Thankfully, however, we can reach the Sawatch range on the eastern side of our zone, so rather than ski to our west, we headed east to a mountain that we’ve driven by hundreds of times, but had never skied- Park Cone.

Sitting on the southwest side of Taylor Park, Park Cone sits alone, largely unconnected to other mountains. Our friend Jarrett Luttrell had skied Park Cone a bunch, and Ben McShan came along for the ride as well. We almost didn’t make it up Park Cone. The new snow had insulated the manky mush below, making for waist deep trail breaking at times. A thousand feet higher the snow finally became supportable, while the snow was cranking up again:

I’m sure the views from the summit are some of the best around, but we only saw fog, wind, and snow. Thankfully our route was well defined and it was looking good while Jarrett made his first turns:

Ben:

Brittany:

Given the way our day had started, conditions were much better than expected. This is a long line, and we milked all 3,000 feet of it for all it was worth. Ben:

Frank:

Jarrett:

Brittany:

If only we had our flyrods, we’d go straight to the riverbank and start fishing:

I’ve long looked at this line, so it was great to finally tick it off the list. It’s steeper than I expected up top- and it’s certainly a long one. Perhaps something to ski the next upslope…

Hmmn, maybe a stand up paddleboard on Taylor reservoir would be fun after a spring descent of Park Cone:

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Frank Konsella

Frank loves snow more than anything... except his wife.  He ensures his food is digested properly by chewing it 32 times before swallowing.He is a full-time real estate agent serving Crested Butte and Gunnison and would be honored to send you his monthly newsletter.

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