Wasatch Weather Weenies

My focus on Alpine adventures has distracted me from exploring Utah's snow and snowpack for sometime.  I know it has been a good (possibly great?) ski season since I left, but now lets turn our attention to the spring melt.  To make this post a little easier, however, let's ask a simple question.  When will we see the end of snow cover at the Snowbird SNOTEL (9640 ft near the Mid-Gad Restaurant)?  This is probably a reasonable approximation of Snowbird's closing date. This year has been above the median over the past 30 years, with a peak snowpack water equivalent of about 58.1 inches on April 19 and 20 (blue line).  This is about 35% greater than the median peak of 43.1 inches (magenta line), although peak median occurs somewhat later on 1 May.  There has been a decline in snowpack water equivalent over the past week indicating that the snowpack is "ripe", meaning that it has warmed to the melting point through depth and energy input can lead to meltwate...

The Italian province immediately across the Brenner Pass and Alpine Divide from Austria's State of Tirol is widely known as South Tyrol in English and indicated in red below.  Source: Wikipedia However, to make it complicated, three major languages are spoken in the province, and thus it has three names: Autonome Provinz Bozen – Südtirol in German, Provincia autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige in Italian, and Provinzia autonoma de Bulson – Südtirol in Ladin.  Most people I know are German or English speaking, so Südtirol or South Tyrol are what I hear it called most frequently.  I've gotten used to the German spelling "Tirol" while here, and so I will incorrectly refer to the region as South Tirol here to add more confusion. Tirol and South Tirol and some other parts of the surrounding area have be divided, united, and under various parties for a long time.  The history is fascinating but complicated, so I won't go into details here.  I will just say that t...

The Tyrol has long been an important strategic region due to the Brenner Pass south of Innsbruck being the lowest pass across the Alps.  The mountains themselves served as an important strategic defense for centuries against invaders from other regions, and today they still serve as major barriers to the penetration of cold airmasses into the Tirol. Today provides a great example.  As of 1000 UTC (1200 CET), cold air has surged across the Alpine Foreland in southern Germany where surface stations (upper left of figure below) are reporting temperatures of 5–7˚C. Map source: University of Innsbruck This airmass, however, is fairly shallow.  A sounding collected four hours earlier in Hohenpeissenberg, the easternmost of the two sites shows shallow northwesterly flow with strong southwesterly flow aloft.  A strong inversion caps a shallow pool of cold air between about 875 and 825 mb.  Basically, there is a shallow layer of post-cold-frontal air capped by ve...

The Hahnenkamm is a mountain in Kitzbühel, Austria that is host to a series of World Cup Alpine ski races each winter.  The downhill, following a course called the Streif, is the Super Bowl of men's Alpine skiing.  Winning on the Streif requires great skill and huge risk taking. Kitzbühel is one of the most famous ski resorts in the world and links with multiple other ski areas to provide a resort with 57 lifts, 230 km of pistes, and 41 km of additional marked ski routes.  Unlike the raw, big, imposing terrain of some Austrian resorts like St. Anton or Ischgl, the mountains around Kitzbühel are lower with less relief.  Kitzbühel itself sits at lowly 762 meters and most of the ski terrain lies below 2000 meters.  Promotional materials claim a mean seasonal snowfall of 2.5 meters (100 inches) in the valley and 8 meters (314 inches) on the mountain.  I can't confirm that without more digging.  What I can say is that mean annual precipitation ...

It waited until the very end of the season, but I finally got to ski the Nordkette area above Innsbruck on Easter Sunday morning. On paper, it's an appealing resort.  You can get to it by funicular from downtown Innsbruck.  It has two trams spanning 1400 vertical meters (4575 vertical feet).  And, it is steep, with some great freeride lines dropping back to the Inn Valley. On the other hand, I don't think trails 2 and 3 are groomed and everything below the bottom of chair 1 is essentially backcountry.  Thus, one needs to ski it wisely (and today there was  no snow below the lowest chairlift).  Then, there's the issue of the south aspect, which means the snow is tortured quickly by the sun. However, it's currently severe clear here in the Tirol and afternoon highs in Innsbruck have been around 24˚C.  I figured the Tirolean firn (what we call corn snow) would be great in the morning, so I headed up for a couple of hours of laps. However, when ...

The highlight of our adventures in Italy was a visit to Cinque Terre, a coastal area of northwest Italy that encompasses five villages: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.  Photos of these colorful villages perched in precarious locations along the Mediterranean Sea are iconic and well recognized.  Below is Vernazza where we stayed a couple of nights.  The villages are connected by rail, boat, and an extensive network of hiking trails, enabling all kinds of trecking adventures.  It's about as much fun as you can have shouldering a pack in the morning and seeing where you end up.   First the villages.  Colorful.  Beautiful.  Historical.   Although it is possible to drive to near the villages, they are mainly devoid of cars.  The buildings are built and molded onto rugged terrain.  Village exploration involves canyoneering Italian style.  For the most part you are...