the latest pics from Tuolumne Meadows and snow report

Astounding snow pack! Here in the Spring Mountains north of Las Vegas we have also had a near record year of snow. On February 24 my buddy and I skied all day at the Lee Canyon Ski & Snowboard Resort then car camped at the nearby Mc Williams campground. That night it was 10 F. and after a few nips of 12 year old rye whiskey we turned in. My buddy had a -5 F. synthetic bag and I had a -20 F. down bag, his on a winter Thermarest self-inflating pad and me on an REI clone of a Sea to Summit winter mattress.  It was a good night’s sleep for all – and a frosty tent in the morning.

Sage sausage and freeze-dried “skillet breakfast” (still dumped into a skillet to brown it) was great to have that hearty meal on a cold Saturday morning. Hot cocoa and coffee topped it off.

from today’s SF Chronicle ( 3 1 23):

Snow was still falling Tuesday as meteorologists reported impressive snowfall totals — for the storm and the season. UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab, at 6,894 feet near Donner Pass, reported receiving 36 inches of snow since Monday, 52.2 inches since Sunday and 109.3 inches in the previous seven days. So far this season, nearly 500 inches of snow have been recorded at the research station. That’s more snow than has fallen, from October through February, since 1970 at the research station and the second-most ever behind the 1952 snow year, when 800 inches were reported.