High Sierra Topix

sparky wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 1:34 pm lets hope it keeps rolling through instead of fizzling out like it will sometimes do

Your right Sparky, I hope the snow keeps coming too.

Texan

We've now hit an average snow year in the Central & Southern part of the state. Note that while the Southern Sierra has more snow than average, it still has essentially the same amount as the North/Central Sierra in terms of what's on the ground. At least at the elevations where the snow sensors are.

Just checked and Leavitt Lake snow sensor is over 200 inches. Great news. Looks like these storms put a dent in the drought.

Texan

LEAVITT LAKE (LVT)
Elevation: 9600' · WALKER R basin · Operator: Natural Resources Conservation Service
Query executed Sunday at 08:01:20

Provisional data, subject to change.
Select a sensor type for a plot of data.

Hourly Data
Earlier

DATE / TIME
PST SNOW WC
INCHES SNOW DP
INCHES RAIN
INCHES TEMP
DEG F
01/14/2023 21:00 57.80 299 27.80 22
01/14/2023 22:00 58.10 198 27.80 22
01/14/2023 23:00 58.20 200 27.80 21
01/15/2023 00:00 58.40 316 N 27.80 20
01/15/2023 01:00 58.50 202 27.80 19
01/15/2023 02:00 58.50 204 27.80 19
01/15/2023 03:00 58.60 204 27.80 19
01/15/2023 04:00 58.70 206 27.80 18
01/15/2023 05:00 58.80 207 27.80 17
01/15/2023 06:00 58.80 204 27.80

It is coming down in a big way. The Gianelli sensor - near the summer Gianelli trailhead- has recorded 5 inches of water content over the past 48 hours. That is massive. Leavitt lake - 3 inches of water content in 24 hours. If it was light fluffy stuff, an inch of water content would be about 10 inches or so of snow. Probably this is pretty wet stuff, so more like 6 or 8 inches of snow for every inch of water content. Where the sensors show snow depth, they will not record as much as that, because the snow settles as more snow lands on top of it.
And still more in the forecast for tomorrow, tmorrow night, and maybe wednesday and thursday.

Love the snow. Water. Less fires. Just go later in the season if you don't like deep crossings and wet feet. August is the new June, at least in 2023.

It is really too early to say August 2023 will be June of 2022. It depends on how much more snow we get in Feb-March, and the speed of the spring melt. But regardless, the current snowpack to date is wonderful. I am re-processing my 2011 photos, which is similar to what we have now to date, but snow continued and melted slowly. Here is a photo of mid-July conditions in Desolation Wilderness.

I booked a 13 day permit starting August 27th at Cottonwood Lakes. With the current series of storms I am glad we are starting late. We will probably go over New Army pass unless I hear that Army pass is in decent shape that late in August.

We did a north bound Cottonwood Pass to Yosemite valley JMT trip in 2011. We saw significant snow on all the higher passes include Donohue Pass on Labor day weekend. Muir pass was the hardest that year because of all the snow and flowing water on the trail south of the pass.

We live in Reno and our property has been covered in snow from before Christmas to now with only a couple of weeks where it got warm enough to melt off much of the snow.

At this point, no more IFs needed. Many urban visitors this year that are not familiar with nor don't understand how different the High Sierra can be during huge winters, will do their usual planning, but are going to be surprised, cold, wet, and learn some lessons. Especially ominous will be numbers of poorly prepared PCT and JMT thru hiker stories trying to cross swollen ice cold torrents.

While it is still early, it is looking more and more likely that we will have a big snow year for hiking "Season."

The most important take aways for our friends hiking the PCT (earlier):

1. Creeks kill people. Every big snow year it seems there are 1 or 2 drowning deaths in the Sierra. If it looks big and fast then find another place to cross.

Andrew Skurka has a list of some of the well known crossings that can be dangerous:

https://andrewskurka.com/psa-hazardous- ... lternates/

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... ingle=true

Some of the hiking apps also have this kind of data/info (as hikers pass thru).

2) Slow onset hypothermia is hard to detect. Watch/listen for (your partners) mumbles and grumbles, or stumbling. Keeping feet and hands dry when it is very cold is a must; you need your hands to put up your shelter and get warm. Water proof socks, longer water proof gaiters, vapor barrier mitts, etc. are all important tools if you're post holing like crazy. Keep your core warm while hiking (synthetic insulation rules the day). Be prepared if you're out early this year.

Hope this year eases the drought too!