Christmas Eve 2010 Big Meadow

For Christmas this year we got an entire seasons snowpack in a single storm cycle. A Pineapple express stayed over Utah for several days with over 5.5" of water at Mammoth/Cottonwood, sundance got nearly 12" of water, and places in Southern Utah received 18"+ of water, so needless to say, with a couple of inverted layers coupled with such an enormous amount of snow, a substantial natural cycle occurred in the usual suuspect, NE facing steep, windloaded slopes.

Although overall things did not come completely unglued, the Phone Shot did run wall to wall.

That much new snow and weight also knocked down alot of timber, but with such a Bluebird day, the scenery could have not been prettier. Trail breaking on ski's and snowmobiles was pretty tough, Steve didn't have any trouble, but I got the snowmobile stuck twice just on the way in.

We were pretty comfortable with the old snow and wanted to see how all that new snow was behaving. When we had dug down 200 cm (the length of steves ruler, and usually sufficient for the Plateau, we stopped digging, so from now on, we will be measuring from the top down. The two main bursts of the storm cycle both featured rising temperatures inverting the snow pack, and those layers were fairly evident, and while they would compress on isolated columns, the ECT tests would not propogate and would take 20-30 taps to collapse. That means nothing but good news for deep snowpack stability this year. STRONG-STRONG-STRONG!

Skiing was a mixed bag, some barely supportable windslab with 4" of fluff on top that would give way to inverted layers that tails would punch through and once you were down into that layer you could plow on through with square turns, all and all, a pretty good workout. With a little finese, you could make it look good

December 17,2010

For the fourth week in a row, we found good skiing despite very shallow overall pack. Because of low snow considiotns ew returned to Electric Lake Bowl, knowing coverage was sufficent to carefully ski some runs. last weeks unseasonalbly warm temps left a melt-freeze crust almost everywhere except the northernly sheltered slope, ie Electric Lake Bowl.

The overall pack is the strongest we have seen in quite a few years, and continues to get stronger with warm temps and settlement.

Was much colder last couple of days with 6" of very low density snow that fell on Wednesday/Thursday that has settled out to 4" on top of the melt-freeze crust, with the old graupel layer still hanging out below the crust. The crust was hard to find, and you could barely feel it skiing the steeper due north aspects.

Big worry for future is widespread surface hoar and upcoming storm forecast to come in upside-down with warming temps later in storm and possibility for significant new snow and water content.

With warm storms and significant new loading, a natural cycle seem inevitable, but in the bigger picture, will add to snowpack and in the long run, build on a very good start. Next couple of days could be very touchy, just need to be patient and wait for things to settle out and heal.

December 10, 2010

We didn't have too much faith in finding good skiing today, were pleasantly suprised with sheltered slopes providing good skiing. Doesn't take too much graupel to restore skiing conditions. Didn't stray too far from road today expecting the worse, but by avoiding ever present deadfall logs and stumps, it was possible to link several turns together and had a great time. Snow pack on the plateau is suprisingly strong and getting stronger due to very warm weather the last two-three weeks. See pit below




Layering evident on interval board, graupel in the middle.

Only 15 cm of new snow on interval board, and total depth at Miller Flats still at 55 cm. We found deeper snow further up the ridge in a more protected area, 82 cm.

Wind has been very busy and test slopes along Huntington Reservoir Dam would pop out 6"-8" wind slabs with a good stomp, still wouldn't run far. I imagine the more extreme terrain could produce larger results, and with a cold front on the way, tomorrow and Sunday could have some increased hazard in steep windloaded terrain.

Graupel layer down about 3"-4" down could be a player if we get alot of new snow, but the pattern does not show any significant weather in the future. Plateau may even be on the southern fringe of the incoming cold front, and just get another blast of graupel and high winds (Winds on the Wasatch Plateau???)

Otherwise, today hazard was low and do not see any significant change in that with very warm weather forecast for next week.

On summit ridges strong winds out of the southwest coupled with clouds and flat light required staying off the top and in the trees. Three weeks in a row of good skiing in late November and early December, excited for a great year!!!

December 3, 2010

Even though the weather has warmed up and no pack refreeze had occurred, we found great creamy settled powder in upper Electric Lake Bowl. Snow depth is still very shallow and terrain hazards galore exist, we were able to make several laps in the upper bowl, and even one tenative center punch despite the rocky ledge mid bowl.

Weather was overcast. muggy, and warm, but what precip fell was snow, had intermittent blasts of sun through the clouds

Warm temps had stablized entire pack, but did find evidence of buried surface hoar layer in our pit that could cause some problems down the road.

Heres the snowpit

Exit shot was great skiing with filtered backlight sun

Also spend some time helping set up the Beacon Basin at the summit, it is a beacon practice area available to all in partnership with the Forest Service, BCA, and local merchants.