Saturday, May 30, 2020
Extreme Heat Last Weekend of May
We were really spoiled this year in April and the first two weeks of May for late season skiing conditions. I could not believe that the snowpack held out in such good condition for so long. Great coverage above 6500 feet combined with cool temps into May really made for some nice days with quite nice weather. Typically April is a rainy, wet, cloudy mess when the snowpack is transitioning. Unfortunately as with all years the snowpack eventually has to change to summer pack, and it seems the longer it lasts, the faster it goes when this transition happens. The last two weeks of May were rough for the pack. The one two punch of a few inches of rain the third week, combined with hot temperatures pushing to 90 degrees in the last week of May made for some less than ideal skiing. This day I ventured out just so happened to be on the hottest day of the year for 2020 with valley temps pushing to the 90's. I wanted to get to the higher mountains in hopes the pack had held up. As one would imagine after more than a week of no refreeze and temps at 10,000 ft pushing 70 that day, it was a short one. I was lucky enough to get two really nice runs before the snow was totally cooked. After that it was pure carnage up there with waterfalls starting to pour off and out of couloirs, so loud it sounded like 30 mph winds in the trees. I have never witnessed that much water pouring from the face of a mountain, and had a hard time processing the amount of melt water pouring down. I also had a hard time believing that the snowpack could stay stuck to the side of the mountain with a raging stream below it. Needless to say, I did not mess with it.







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