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Weather: (February 6 through February 12) High temp: 61° (Feb 12) Low temp: 5° (Feb 8) New Snow: 0” Total settled snow depth: 56” as of February 13 Ski Conditions and Weather: It has been warm and sunny all week in Tuolumne, with afternoon highs in the fifties most days, and overnight lows in the mid-teens. The sun is strong enough to turn most of the sunny open areas to mush during the warmest part of the day, but we were still able to find some nice turns in pockets of powder on north-facing shady slopes such as those north of the Granite Lakes basin on Monday and east of Elizabeth Lake last Friday. The warmth has settled the snowpack considerably (our base has gone down 10” in the past week), making the trail breaking relatively easy. Be prepared for sticky and collapsible snow during the warmest parts of the day however. Most of the higher slopes are considerably wind scoured, but still skiable. Avalanche and Snowpack Conditions: For the latest avalanche advisory for this area go to www.esavalanche.org for the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center and click on advisory. The ESAC site is updated several times a week and more often during weather events. Wildlife: We have seen very little wildlife in the past couple of weeks, just the usual tracks of coyotes, pine martens, weasels, squirrels, mice, and hares, along with birds such as Mountain Chickadees, Brown Creepers, Townsend’s Solitaires, and Clark’s Nutcrackers. Questions: If you have any ski related or weather questions feel free to call 209-372-0450 between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm. If we are out skiing, leave a message and a phone number so we can return your call. Please don’t call us with questions about road conditions, as we live 20 miles from the nearest plowed road and don’t do any driving this time of year. For current park road conditions call 209-372-0200. (Jeff and Kathi, the Tuolumne winter rangers - 2/14/08)

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