Dege to Burroughs snowpack beta
7/15/08
3310
2
The whole reason behind this tour was to check to see if the snowpack was really gone up at Sunrise. I left home at 3a.m. to watch the Sunrise over Rainier but upon my arrival all of sunrise was in a dense layer of clouds. While sitting there I saw a patch of clear sky over Antler peak so I decided to hike to the summit and hope for the best. It turned out that Antler was at the top of the cloud layer and I got a view of both Rainier and the rising sun. Both the snowpack on the Eastern and western basins off Antler had deteriorated substantially with only one line that dropped from the ridge to the basin on the Eastern side and none on the other.
I returned to my car and picked up my gear for a traverse tour out to the 3rd burrough checking snowpack along the way. Huckleberry seemed to have only one small run into the basin but other then that the lines were not continuous. The Burroughs were fairing better but not by much. All 3 of them had snowpack but the first had a section you had to down climb, the second is a rather small patch, and while the 3rd is the biggest the middle is a huge flat section. As for Berkley park there is only one single line and that is from the low saddle between the 2nd and 3rd burrough sadly the line is small and not worth the long trek. Dege is just plain sad as the snowpack doesnt even start until 1/3 the ways down the mountain and there is no snow beyond that on the sourdough ridge.
I tried to figure out why the snowpack was so low this year and these are some things I came up with
The obvious one is the Rain shadow effect, possibly the cold weather didnt allow the snow to bond so well and since it is alpine the snow got windblown. The last week of hot weather and rain was disastourous to the snowpack. Possibly since sunrise opened somewhat later then normal, the sun is facing more from the North and even north facing slopes werent safe. Other then that why is the snowpack so horrible this season?
Here are some pics of the Snowpack
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1911605#post1911605
I returned to my car and picked up my gear for a traverse tour out to the 3rd burrough checking snowpack along the way. Huckleberry seemed to have only one small run into the basin but other then that the lines were not continuous. The Burroughs were fairing better but not by much. All 3 of them had snowpack but the first had a section you had to down climb, the second is a rather small patch, and while the 3rd is the biggest the middle is a huge flat section. As for Berkley park there is only one single line and that is from the low saddle between the 2nd and 3rd burrough sadly the line is small and not worth the long trek. Dege is just plain sad as the snowpack doesnt even start until 1/3 the ways down the mountain and there is no snow beyond that on the sourdough ridge.
I tried to figure out why the snowpack was so low this year and these are some things I came up with
The obvious one is the Rain shadow effect, possibly the cold weather didnt allow the snow to bond so well and since it is alpine the snow got windblown. The last week of hot weather and rain was disastourous to the snowpack. Possibly since sunrise opened somewhat later then normal, the sun is facing more from the North and even north facing slopes werent safe. Other then that why is the snowpack so horrible this season?
Here are some pics of the Snowpack
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1911605#post1911605
Did you check freemont area at all?
Fremont Propers North side is okay but the look out area is gone.
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