Record snow year? Not quite...

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John Dittli
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Record snow year? Not quite...

Post by John Dittli »

Hi Folks

I just returned from the long snow survey on the upper Kern (Cottonwood to Forester) last week; there is indeed, a lot of snow. In fact on some courses we were measuring the deepest snow depth on record. We were not however, measuring the greatest SWE (snow water equivalent), that is still owed to April 1, 1969. We did measure more SWE then April 1 '83, but aprox 4" less than April 1 '69. If it decides to start snowing again in March, we may yet exceed 1969.

All that said, we were measuring an average of about 10' of pack, even down at Little Whitney Mdw where the SWE is a rather astonishing 276% of April 1
The entire upper Kern Basin was sitting at 260% to date
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cslaght
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Re: Record snow year? Not quite...

Post by cslaght »

The shot of Charlotte Lake RS is amazing, WOW
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maverick
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Re: Record snow year? Not quite...

Post by maverick »

Thanks for the update John and the the wonderful shots of those ranger huts. :thumbsup:
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John Dittli
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Re: Record snow year? Not quite...

Post by John Dittli »

I like this one of Tyndall before we dug it out
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maverick
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Re: Record snow year? Not quite...

Post by maverick »

Nice John.
Love the way the creek is melted out at Little Whitney, it looks likes it has been carved out, with over 6" side walls.
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I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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gary c.
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Re: Record snow year? Not quite...

Post by gary c. »

Like everyone else I love these pictures. Thanks so much for posting them.
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Silky Smooth
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Re: Record snow year? Not quite...

Post by Silky Smooth »

Thanks again for the photos, I think I'm heading to the golden trout for some fun touring :)
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AlmostThere
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Re: Record snow year? Not quite...

Post by AlmostThere »

And then there's this:
http://kvpr.org/post/sierra-nevada-new- ... hs-75-feet
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longri
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Re: Record snow year? Not quite...

Post by longri »

John Dittli wrote:We were not however, measuring the greatest SWE (snow water equivalent), that is still owed to April 1, 1969. We did measure more SWE then April 1 '83, but aprox 4" less than April 1 '69.
Thanks for posting, John.

Didn't 1952 have a greater April 1 SWE than 1969?
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