More Snow – More Backcountry Skiing 2012

As I noted as a comment to my previous post about the low and icy snowpack it resumed snowing a few days after that post. It continued snowing, heavily at times, and the snowpack dramatically recovered.

This can be seen in the following graph of “snow water equivalent” in the snowpack at Three Creeks Meadow, not far from my home. Within a week the snow water equivalent tripled from 3 to 9 inches. The snow water equivalent then plateaued until March when it started a steady increase until it met and surpassed the 30-year average.

This pattern of alternating local winter drought and storm is not uncommon. Often one is tempted to extrapolate from late autumn conditions to the rest of the ski season, but this has proven to be unreliable.

When the snowpack recovered Linda and I with friends returned to ski the local backcountry trails. Here Linda prepares for the fun and challenging descent on powder through forest off the Vista Butte summit as snow from the next storm begins to fall.

We skied many times, backcountry skiing on local trails and skating at the Mount Bachelor Nordic Center through the winter months. This winter was cooler than average and seemed cloudier than most. We are now eager to resume bicycling and hiking in sunnier and warmer conditions.