Current snow pack, upper Kern 1/24-2/5

[John Dittli]

Hi all, been a long time, how's everyone, staying out of trouble? Maverick asked if I would let you all know about the snow up here

I was on the "Feb 1" Kern snow survey this year and I'm happy to report that most courses measured right around average to date. The upper Kern route covers a 100 mile loop from Cottonwood Pass to upper Tyndall Creek Bench then down to Little Whitney Meadow and up Golden Trout Creek back to Cottonwood. While back there, we received ~30" of new snow (3-4" of water). Most courses we measured prior to the storm were slightly under 100%, after the storm a bit above. The percentages increased the further west we went (Little Whitney was quite fat coming in just a couple of inches below 100% for the year (April 1). While we didn't have any east side courses to measure, from my observations I would suggest that the lower elevations of the east slope are well below average (I have yet to plow my driveway at 7200' and drove to the pack station up McGee today for some skiing).

With the warm weather (55° here today) and the lack of predicted storms in the next couple of weeks, the averages are sure to plummet well below normal before the next storm cycle, predicted around week four of this month.

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[John Dittli]

more photos here https://www.facebook.com/john.dittli/me ... nref=story

[Tom_H]

Absolutely beautiful photos! Those swirly little drifts were stunning.

Right on average... and that's the output from the largest El Nino ever recorded. I am terrified of what happens when La Nina returns.

[maverick]

Thank you John for the information and the wonderful photo's!