[pct-l] Sierra Snow Report..Good News & Bad News

[Reinhold Metzger]

Hi gang,
Trouble is back in town...that of course is good news for the women, but bad news for the guys.
Yes, Teerings, the snow cap is way down in the heart of the Sierra, at Mammoth Mountain.
Skiing is very marginal except for runs with snow making equipment.
Karen and I, and our ski-bum buddies, had plans to go ski Mammoth Mountain again next week but
now we are having second thoughts.

The average annual snow fall at Mammoth Mountain is 342".
In in the 2010-2011 season it was 668" in the 1976-1977 season it was only 94".
The average snow fall by this time of the year is about 100"...in 2010-2011 it was 307".
In 1976-1977 it was 4"....this year, so far, we had 52".
Considerably above 1976-1977, but substantially below last year or the average.

So what does that mean?....it means that, although still to early to tell, we may be in for
another low snow year.

This, of course, is bad news for ski bums like me but good news for "Hiker-trash" like you.

JMT Reinhold
Your ski bumming trail companion
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Teerings wrote:
We are now about tied with snow conditions for the 1976-1977 year drought,
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/snowapp/swcchart.action,  with no change in
the pattern in sight.

The La Nina pattern roughly makes south of Tahoe dry and north of Shasta
wet.http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20111020_winteroutlook.html.
If it continues we'll have an early start to the season in California.