It is always a treat to find the Snowbank false morel in the Southern Rockies, as our snow years are so uncertain. In good seasons this species can be common. Until recently it seemed that the form this false morel took was as a relatively small, reddish tan, blotchy fruit body scattered at the edge of snowbanks. In 1995 however, I found a truly huge fruit body weighing slightly over two pounds buried along side a rotten log in Spruce-Fir forest in early July.
    Gyromitra gigas is an edible species with the proviso that one does not eat it raw. The presence of the toxin gyromitrin is possible in this group of mushrooms.