The Wasatch Snow Today

For the season there is a fair amount of snow in the Wasatch. The downside to that is that this is probably the future deep buried layer of facets that in a couple of month will give us all sorts of instabilities. It is still darn nice to look at so here are some pictures I took this morning (click to enlarge):

Cardiff Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon with Kessler Peak (10,403') to the far
 left. If you enlarge you can see slides in Cardiac Bowl and ridge.

Gobbler's Knob (10,246') to the left and Wilson Peak (9,950') and chutes
to the right and Gobblers Knob (10,246') to the left.

To the right Murdock Peak (9,602') with Todd's Bowl under it
and to the left North Bowl.

Touring Deer Valley's Empire Express

Another "pre-season" ski tour today. The snow wasn't as good as it was Sunday. Today the temps were up and the weather a bit less intense. The flipside is that the snow was wet, heavy, and not as fun as it was in Sunday's teen temps. In any case, it was a nice little tour and here are a couple of pictures (click to enlarge):

Jupiter is getting a sense of foreboding from the skies...
It got a fair amount of snow for October though.

Clayton Peak (10,720') to the left and 10,420' to the right.

NOAA Winter Weather Forecast

A couple of days ago the NOAA its 2019/2020 Winter Outlook. This one covers December 2019 to  February 2020. The next installment is due on November 4, 2019.

For the Intermountain West, the forecast says higher than normal temperatures but normal levels of precipitation. To see the entire forecast click here.

Below is the precipitation probability map, we are in the white i.e. normal, for the Wasatch that's not bad considering the high level of snowfall we normally get on an average winter.

Click the below picture for a great explainer video.

NOAA Forecast Summary Video - This screenshot shows the temperature trend relevant to the Intermountain West.

First Ski of the 2019/2020 Season

So, after yesterday's post "Winter begins in the Wasatch" we went from an encouraging sprinkle of snow to skiable in a couple of days! With temperatures in the high teens, and howling winds there sure was a bit of an Arctic feel on the outing and there is no question it felt like a full-on winter day. Although the skiing was not outstanding, it was still skiing and that snow was kind of fast. In any case, under the stipulation that any skiing is better than no skiing, this was an amazing tour!
Here are a few pictures (click to enlarge):

It is pretty white out there.

The winds they were howling... This picture of McConkey's is taken from the
porch of the ski patrol hut - the only windfree spot today!

Loki having a good day,

The sun came out just in time for us to get back to the parking lot.

Rock skis and a yet another shameless true north plug.

Winter begins in the Wasatch

Time to get the stoke on! Here a couple of pictures taken of a sprinkle of snow at 7,500 - 8,000 feet in the Wasatch this morning. It should get better over the week-end, see the last picture or more on that. Click to enlarge:

The summit here is at 8,100'.

Where the sun hits it's about 7,500'.

Today's Park City forecast at 9,400' for the weekend. By Sunday
evening the expected accumulated snowfall is a total of 8" - 13" 

Words of wisdom...

As the season should finally be around the corner I felt it was a good time to dwell on the meaning of life and skiing and other eternal truths. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a couple of thousand words of wisdom:

Fall in the Wasatch

Fall is a great time to be out in the Wasatch with a bunch of benefits:

1. Given the colors, it's even more beautiful out there than usual.
2. The air is clear and it's not hot so if you are working out you can really go after it in some comfort.
3. It's not yet the ski season so solitude is still possible - the downside of that is of course that "It's not yet the ski season"...

Here are a couple of pictures plus a plug for my backpack (click to enlarge):

Fall colors wit on the horizon Murdock Peak (the highest one) and to its
immediate left Todd's Bowl and further to the left (past the trees) North Bowl.

View into Lambs Canyon.

The one and only true nðrŧ (nope, it’s not a typo, see here) COULOIR 22.