Monday, August 5, 2013

The Bleak Remnants of Winter 2012/13

The past two winters provided below average and were followed by hot summers, with this June–July being the hottest in the history of Salt Lake City.  In both cases, the snowpack was decimated during summer, leaving few options for the turns all year types.  This year, the carnage looks even more complete than last year.  Note in the photos below how the patch that lingered at the base of the American Fork Twin last year is gone (the comparison below might be a bit unfair given that last year's photo is about a week earlier, but I fortuitously had it on my hard disk).

AF Twin from Snowbird Tram on 26 July 2012.
Source: Snowbird
AF Twin from Snowbird Tram on 4 Aug 2013.
Source: Snowbird
With some effort, you can find just a few remaining patches along the Alpine Ridge west of Snowbird (click for full res).


Last year, the Timp snowfield was nearly wiped out.  We may need to put it on a death watch this year, although I suspect a patch or two may survive.  Send me a recent photo if you have one.  

1 comment:

  1. If I'm not mistaken, there was a fairly large slide last year that created a larger than normal base where that patch was last year.

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