The Mt Timpanogos Snowfield is Back!

This used to be presented as a “permanent” snowfield in reaction to more ambitious word choices such as “the Timpanogos glacier” that you can find here and there in the literature (not naming any names here…). That snowfield was proven un-permanent when it vanished some years ago, and up until and including last summer, there wasn’t a flake of snow on that field, only desolate rock.

Having been up that mountain a lot of times, I have noticed, in seasons past, that even one good storm can produce surprising amounts of snow and a reasonably good snow cover. Considering further that last winter produced a copious amount of snow, and it just snowed up there yesterday afternoon and parts of the night, I figured a visual inspection may be in order. Although quite curious, I was not overly optimistic thinking it would take quite a few seasons to rebuild a thing like that. Well, I got to find out that that snowfield is very substantially back! It is close to the shape it was in when I last skied it. One or two more decent seasons and this thing may start feeling a lot more permanent again… While waiting for that, the short term is very encouraging as can be seen in this NOAA forecast for this week at 10,300’ (bottom of the snowfield):

The graphics for this forecast only goes till Thursday night. After that,
the text version says "Chance of snow" from Friday till Sunday included.

The snowfield, when full, starts by the Emerald Lake Shelter at about 10,300’. It is encased by a triangular cirque with the following boundaries: at its west the Mt Timpanogos summit (11,748’), at its east the Mt Timpanogos shoulder (11,161’), and at its southernmost point the saddle where you start skiing (11,300’). The map below shows the Saddle and the Shoulder, materialized by the dashed line is the best ski line i.e. the one with the least double fall line.

…and here are today’s pictures (click to enlarge):

First impressions are everything! This is the view that opens up
about an hour into the hike up.

Same view but including Primrose Cirque which
holds some of its own snowfields.

"The Timp Glacier" in all its splendor and at about 90% of the best
I ever saw it.

Closing in on the upper part of the snowfield. The very top
 is why it's not at 100% as the first 100 or so feet need more snow.

A couple of guys came up from the Timponeke trail with their skis. This one
is booting up with skis on the backpack.

Partial view of Emerald Lake as seen from the shelter.