January 19, 2015 Alpine, Wyoming Rockin' M Ranch Snow Report
We woke up to about two inches of wet heavy snow Sunday Morning. As the day went on it warmed a bit and went to bed last night to a rain snow mix. It is clear and sunny today, it appears from looking at the snow line on the mountains that the snow gets lighter over 7000 feet. The feed back from Saturdays renters was all good. It sounds like the new snow was enough to freshen things up and soften the crust that had previously formed in some of the open areas. I don't believe over the hood powder is going to be found, but some powder for sure. A guy that rode Blind Bull on Saturday said it was the best day of riding he ever had. It appears that most of the mountains in the area picked up 6-10 inches from the last storm. Jackson hole ski resort reports 9" in 24 hours and Targhee 13" in three days. Willow went from 48"-51"(111%), Blind Bull 56"to 60" (138%), Spring Creek 56"-62" (141%).
Just a little side note. I have had a few phone calls this year of people wanting to cancel due to the "poor snow". I am not getting this. We have survived many winters where the snow was 70-80% of normal yet we still found good riding. This year the Snake River drainage is at 118% and our local snotel sites even higher. The overall inches on the snotel sites does not look as impressive as past because we had early conditions that created an incredibly thick dense base. Another comment we get from people who have driven from the Togwotee direction is, Alpine doesn't have as much snow as Togwotee. Of course not, Togwotee is a mountain pass that sits over 8000 feet. Alpine sits at 5700 feet, we ride up a bit before we get to the deep snow. Most of our snotel sites are at 8000-9000 feet as compared to Togwotee's 9580". Therefore it is not a real fair comparison to compare sites. We do have riding from 9000-10,000 feet just no snotel sites at those elevations. If we were to compare this season the Blindbull snotel site which sits at 8650 has 17.3 inches of water in the snopack. Togwotee snotel which sits at 9580 has 15.5 inches of water in the snowpack. Yes, it is fair to say the Alpine area has more snow than Togwotee. Of course all of this being said, snotel sites aren't entirely accurate due to the wind effect which can make them lie significantly either way. I wish I could tell all the Snowsnobs out there that every morning is going to be sunny with over the hood powder, with a low avalanche risk, but I can't. But I can say, we have great snow this year. Those lucky enough to be here after or during a good dump may find the legendary "over the hood powder" that us locals hope to get a few times of the year, and those who don't time it quite right should still be able to find good riding without to much effort.
Eric
