Snow levels

[Jesse Speer]

My front yard looks like an environment I'd see at 12,000 feet in January. I have to shovel nearly every day just to get out of the house. The discarded snow is piling above my head. The winds and snow drifts have been brutal! And I have cabin fever. I'm primed to get out in a week or so.

So I know the front range has been dumped on lately - but I haven't been out much. Can anyone tell me about the snow levels in the rest of the state, especially summit county? I'd like to go to Mayflower Gulch soon, one of my favorite winter spots.

And I'm just basically getting the fall color thread off the home page.

[Kalin Wilson]

We came over Hoosier the 31st coming back from Utah. At that time they didn't have as much snow as we do, at least as evidenced by the roadside piles. I didn't get out and tromp through the forest . I got a notice from steepsavers.com that Breck got 18 inches last weekend, so who knows.

I'm not familiar with Mayflower gulch. Let me know if you ever want any company on an excursion!

BTW - I'm sick of moving snow too. If I wanted drifting snow all winter I'd live in WY or SD. The snow banks along my drive are so solid I can't widen it and have to just keep piling on. Hopefully I can get out of here this weekend and shoot!

[Brent Doerzman]

I'm afraid I can't answer your snow level question Jesse, except from my back porch, cause I haven't been out to shoot for WAYYYYY too long!! Really looking forward to the Dunes next weekend though!!!

However, I do at least have a little info on Mayflower Gulch for Kalin. Like Jesse, it's absolutely one of my favorite spots, especially in the winter. I'll post a few hopefully useful links below. I'd be willing to bet that sometime in the next couple months that we'll get a group of folks from NPC and RMNP to head up there for sunset!! Let me know if you have any questions about the place. Oh, and hopefully we can talk Jesse into posting an image or two from up there, as he has some just plain killer images from there!!

Mayflower info and images

Mayflower Gulch last January

Summer time at Mayflower Gulch

[Scott Bacon]

Ya, I totally agree about Mayflower Gulch - fun place in Winter AND summer.

Here's my travelogue from RMNP's outing last year.

And it's also a great wildflower spot in the summer season.

[Kalin Wilson]

Thanks for the mayflower gulch info! My wife and I have been wanting to get out snowshoeing. Sounds like a great excuse!

I really like your summer pano sunset with the great sun star, Brent!

[Brent Doerzman]

Thanks Kalin! Sadly, since my website needs a LOT of work, those images aren't labeled very good, and that sun star sunrise shot is up on Mt Evans. Looks like I know what I need to do tonight!

[Don Grall]

Update on Mayflower Gulch: I drove by on my way home from skiing at Copper Mt. on Monday, Feb.12. It's still too early to go, the snowpack is sitting at about 50" . There was fresh snow on Monday, but it was the gropple style snow mixed with small flakes that didn't tend to accumalate on tree branches like the wetter spring snows do. The other important thing is the sun is still too far south at sunset to light up the peak above the Gulch.

Don

[Chris Rice]

Anyone been up to RMNP or Indian Peaks in the last week? Just wondering what the snowpack is like near 10,000 feet. I was up in RMNP 4 weeks ago up to Emerald Lake and needed snowshoes. Thinking of a sunrise opp sometime this week.

Thanks!

[Rich Long]

FWIW, you can get an idea of snowpack levels in the major river basins at this site

[joshcouts]

My fiancee and I are in the process of trying to figure out where we can backpack over Memorial Day weekend, so with snowpack figuring to be a large factor, I have been doing a lot of research.

These are both great snow resources as well, concerning snow depth across the state:

Snowdepth figures

Snowdepth Maps

I do wish the maps were larger, but you can get a decent idea from them.

In some of the locations, the distance from town or location is generally mentioned, such as "WESTCLIFFE 7NE", so essentially, 7 miles NE of Westcliffe, there is currently about 16 inches of snowpack in the Wet Mountain area, but it's melting fast.

Some of those aren't to be taken literally. One of the more interesting examples I saw was 0.5 for "MEDANO PASS". I was thinking that almost certainly had to be somewhere on the lower portions of the pass, and not the summit, but I've yet to visit that area this time of year. Then you see 74 inches for "WOLF CREEK SUMMIT". Based on the "MEDANO PASS" code, that weather station is at a snowtel at the 9620 foot mark, just a few hundred feet below the summit, so I guess it can be considered accurate. This page is where I found that information on the location, based on the Station ID code in the table.
This map has all of the stations in Colorado. So, you can click on a spot, find the name of it, and then look it up in the table on NOHRSC.

The snowmelt map is a pretty cool map as well. From looking at it, it looks like generally there isn't much snow on the ground below the 7500 foot elevation mark. There is rapid snowmelt going on for snow remaining in the 7500-10000 foot elevation ranges and very minimal melt going on above 10000 feet. This is very well displayed by the 0.5 inch snowpack at Medano Pass station at 9600 feet, compared to the 64 inch snowpack at the 10800 foot mark at the South Colony station, just 10 miles away.

There are of course exceptions...the LILY POND area of the South San Juans at 11000 feet only claims 3.7 inches of snowpack.

The snowpack temp map can be useful as well to determine the areas that are most likely to melt sooner or later.

Bear Lake area of the national park shows 45 inches, which from what I saw last weekend while up in the area, that sounds fairly accurate.