24 Hour Snow: 0" 72 Hour Snow: 0" Season Total Snow: 22" Depth at Gold Basin: 12"
Winds on Pre-Laurel Peak: N/A Temp: 14° F
Weather
Under clear skies mountain temperatures are in the mid teens. After cranking in the 30-40 mph range yesterday, ridge top winds blowing from the north have backed off into the teens as well. Today, look for sunny skies, light northerly winds, and warming temperatures up to around 30°F at 10,000 feet. High pressure will be with us for the next few days. By New Year's Eve, models are indicating the start of an unsettled, and potentially more active weather pattern. Stay tuned.
General Conditions
I can't sum it up any better than Dave, "the skiing is about as bad as it gets right now." For the gritty details see his observation from Friday. With a snowpack at 49% of normal and rain on Christmas to over 11,000 feet it's beyond rugged out there. I took a trip down to the Abajos on Saturday where there is a similar snowpack and I found shallow conditions, bare solar aspects, and a heavily rimed and rain crusted snow surface. Venturing up to Abajo Peak to de-rime the wind station felt like a trip to Ice Station Zebra on the North Pole. Snow below the crusted surface is faceted through to the ground and like the La Sals, average depths where there is snow cover range from about 6 inches at 9000 feet to around 20 inches above 11,000 feet. Read my full observation here.
Rimed wind station on Abajo Peak. Pre-Laurel no doubt looks the same. I'll be heading up there today to take care of it.
In the video below, Dave discusses the state of the snowpack and the Christmas rain crust.
Snowpack and Weather Data
