2020-2021 Snowpack

was just out in the southern waterpocket fold Weds-Sat and there's plenty of water. Halls Creek is running through and south of the narrows, as are a number of side canyons, not only Millers but also smaller ones.
 
regehr said:
was just out in the southern waterpocket fold Weds-Sat and there's plenty of water. Halls Creek is running through and south of the narrows, as are a number of side canyons, not only Millers but also smaller ones.
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Thanks @regehr, were you doing technical canyons?
 
John Morrow said:
Thanks @regehr, were you doing technical canyons?
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Nope, just wanted to explore this area, which is really great, except that Halls Creek is extremely cowed up right now, just nasty. A lot of what looked like great camping from above turned out to be totally churned up and covered with cow pies when we got there.
We entered using the canyoneers' sneak route from here:

BluuGnome.com - Home Page - Canyoneering

www.bluugnome.com
the route down the cliff system isn't very fun and has some pretty exposed class 3 sections -- we ended up running a short handline in one spot. the hike up to Happy Dog Arch is very cool, absolutely worth it and probably the highlight of this trip. we had nasty blowing snow on the way up but then the sun came out at the top. the views down into Millers and out over the surrounding country from the route are just spectacular. I had really wanted to see the Halls Creek narrows but we only got a short way into them before running into unbypassable deep water and since it was snowing at the time we elected not to swim :). We didn't end up having time to spend a day in Miller's Creek Canyon which was disappointing. I'll see about posting a few pics later.
 
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Front Range did pretty good. 2 feet on the nose between the massive drifts here between Denver and the Springs.
3 hours of digging out is going to leave me feeling 87 years old for the next few days, but this should put a good dent in the drought.

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fossana said:
The SW UT storm totals have so far exceeded the NWS forecast for our town at least. This is at ~3800' (after an interim day of melting), and it's still coming down. Hoping this means the Pine Valley Mountains and Zion backcountry are likewise seeing the same pattern.

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Thanks for posting---Which town is that?
 
JulieKT said:
We got a big amount of snow in Wayne County yesterday (specifically in Torrey and around that general area). More snow than we'd gotten all winter. I believe it was around 14", from what some friends posted. I don't think we'd gotten that much at once for about five years or more. Really great that we got it! Boulder Mountain and the Henrys all look more packed in with snow than they did the day before yesterday. Very excellent.
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14" in Torrey?!? That is way more than they were predicting!
 
RyanP said:
14" in Torrey?!? That is way more than they were predicting!
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We totally got that amount. Easily over a foot, and there was much more closer to the mountains. In Teasdale, which is close to the Boulder, there was more like two feet when I went over there on Saturday. It's all melting down very fast now since it's been warming up, but there still is snow all over. And lots of mud now. There was much less snow in the northern part of the county though, and apparently there was none at all past Hanksville. But it did snow up on the Henrys. Weather can be weird sometimes....

Pic of Torrey snow last Friday:

snow photo.jpg


And snow pic from Moab near the La Sals on Sunday:

moab snow photo.jpg
 
Takes more than a storm.... Needs multiple storms. One is just a small % of the total.
 
What we need is a good monsoon season more than anything. CO had average snowpack last spring and then the worst fire season ever because there was almost no precipitation between June and October. Monsoons haven't really materialized in the last couple years at all.
 
Now here in Jackson Hole Area have seen everywhere between dry to wet. You are right Marmot. There were winters where it was an above normal huge snowpack but a super dry summer and the flowers wilted with the trails becoming nothing but piles of dust. Then there were winters with below normal snowpack but a big wet rainy spring and early summer. In these times the flowers became lush and everywhere with being a great summer. It is not just the winter snowpack but the spring and summer rains also, like marmot-boi said above.
 
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Fingers crossed Utah and the southwest get some big March and April precipitation. Looking super rough down in Arizona and New Mexico.
 
Yes Jackson that is looking really bad down there in the Southwest. Hope they get some much needed moisture. Know someone in Flagstaff and how little moisture have they received down that way this winter.
 
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