B – Bowl – Parsenn Bowl Winter Park
Specifically, Parsenn Bowl at the Winter Park Ski Area – a wide-open, high-alpine bowl that first opened in 1992. With 203 acres and 1,030 vertical feet, Parsenn Bowl is a favorite attraction at Winter Park Resort and the site of ski and snowboard camps that can last well into June. With a top elevation of 12,060′, you really get to experience high-altitude skiing at its best. The views are just about perfect. This panoramic photo will give you an idea.
Classified as “a high alpine bowl for the intermediate skier”, there is nothing intimidating about the Bowl. Describing it as “a colossal drive-in movie screen of the gods” as one writer puts it is perhaps a little over-the-top for my liking, but it does complete the picture for the all-terrain skier, looking for more variety than just bumps or cruisers.
The Bowl certainly does that, but my advice is to pick your moments. On a fine day (and even then the chairlift ride up can be a tad chilly around the bindings!), the view is unquestionably majestic. And while there are an endless variety of routes to descend, it would be as well to stick to the officially marked trails in early season for fear of discovering the many hazards off-piste: rocks and roots just lurking beneath the surface.
However, on powder days late into the season, the Bowl truly comes into its own, and memories of “bouncing” through one particular gladed area of deep, fresh, light snow convinced me that the Bowl would enhance Winter Park’s reputation. Furthermore, when Spring comes around and conditions get much softer (dare I say “slushier”) at the base of the mountain, the snow is the best up on the Bowl.
