High Sierra Topix

I am not cancelling anything- just having some "Plan B" trips in place. The snow so far is similar to 2005-6, and I did a trip from Mineral King over Shotgun Pass, and one in Tablelands that year first 10 days in July. The snow did not stop me. Early June, probably a problem this year, but late June and early July may work. It all depends on the melt. What finally drove me back home was not the snow, but the mosquitos up on Monarch Divide!

I wonder if August and September are going to be clear enough for backpacking in Tuolumne Meadows. One can only hope.

If you look at the CDEC snow graphs, what happens between now and mid-April varies considerably between each year, even if each year is above normal in late February. Interestingly, in May, when things really warm up, things melt quickly, the main difference between a normal year and high snow year is the volume of runoff in the streams. Bottom line- it is too early to predict the summer backpacking season. Long-term prediction of a few days ag show a dry and warm spring for northern California. They did not specifically say anything about southern California. Too much uncertainty today, in my opinion, to alter plans, unless you are talking about April-May plans. I would be more worried about a big runoff and washed out bridges.

although very helpful, most of the data points for these graphs are mid-elevation and intended to estimate the amount of water available for the summer. Residual snow at the very high altitudes are, in the big "water picture", not that important. When the graphs show "0" snow, there will still be snow at the higher altitudes, on passes and north facing slopes. The melt of these higher snow fields is a drop in the bucket for the state's water supply allocations, which IS, what these graphs are designed to show. However, these high altitude snow fields do impact our backpacking!

Small avalanche on Mt Shasta on Valentines Day. Fair to say they’re getting snow too!

As of today's snow sensor report, the Sierra from Yosemite through SEKI has over 120% of average April 1 totals. Not 120% for this date, but for the entire snow year.

indeed. as SEKI permit application day creeps up on us I am already planning a 'Bubbs Bail' version of my proposed late July Roads End/Lake Reflection/S. Guard Lake(over Longley)/Sphinx Lakes Basin/Roads end loop due to what will be a roaring Bubbs and a massive Longley cornice. i am supposed to meet Eastside friends at Junction(they already have their permits reserved online and will be coming in over Kearsarge) so dates are pretty locked in. happy to have the snow-and water. maybe a mellow fire season will be the silver lining!?

EOS Worldview satellite for February 23, 2019

SSSdave wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 8:25 pm

Grape Koolaide Lake

Three wildflower bloom road trips south:
March 2-9 Joshua Tree NP
March 19-24 Anza Borrego SP March 25-26 Antelope Valley California Poppy R
April 4-10 Carrizo Plain NM

Now on May 9 am have just finished post processing images on these trips. Lots of tedious manual focus stack layer selecting in Zerene Stacker. And now starting to code html for pages 2,3,4 on my site. That ought not take too many days.

Fabulous photograph. Just lovely.