After heavy upper-elevation snowfall last night, mid elevation rain, and more snow expected today, we spent the afternoon "cowering in the aspens", avoiding avalanche terrain, and wondering why it wasn't snowing harder.
From yesterday afternoon to 5 PM this afternoon, Alta ended up with a total of 1.57" of water and 13" of snow, which I have to say is disappointing after looking at the radar this morning (see previous post). After 7 am, storm totals were only .47" water and 6 inches of snow. I thought we'd see something closer to 9-12 based on the morning radar.
Backcountry ski conditions ranged for very good to "pinbally". Conditions were very good up high where the bottom was smooth. Down low, in areas where there was overnight rain on snow (or at least a melt freeze cycle), we did a lot of bouncing off of old tracks. Higher snowfall rates would have helped, but freshies are freshies.
The snow today was originating in a very high cloud deck which seemed to be affected very little by orographics. The Doppler radar vertical profile showed radar echoes up to 30,000 feet.
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