Red Cone Opening 2012!

On May 28th, Patrol 14 finished off our Memorial Weekend with an attempt to open Red Cone for the season. On the SouthEast side of the pass, the trail was very dry, but the patrol ran into many downed trees. Luckily there were a plethora of chainsaw this day.

Once we reached the top, the patrol had to install a new Red Cone summit sign because the old one disapeared last year.

On the northwest side of the pass, we ran into a ton deep snow! Luckily we had a lot of hands that day, so we had no problem shoveling our way through the deep white stuff. The first drifts was about 4 feet deep and 30-40 yards long. We made it through in about an hour. As we crept closer to the river crossing, we encountered a serious of 8-10 foot drifts. These were very interesting drifts. There would be an 8 foot hump of snow in front of you, but 15 feet from where you were standing, there was dirt again. Then 20 yards down the trail was another 8 foot hump. We shoveled out the first drift, but after that we just winched and drove over.



The trail is now open and ready for wheelers state, and nation wide!!