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Weather: (February 14 through February 20) High temp: 59° (Feb 17) Low temp: 6° (Feb 14) Total settled snow depth: 52” as of February 20 Ski Conditions and Weather: It was another warm and sunny week in Tuolumne, with afternoon highs in the fifties most days, and overnight lows in the mid-teens. We received 4 inches of snow last night, our first snow in over two weeks. A series of small storms is predicted to move through the area over the next 4 days, which should help freshen up the snow pack a bit. Skiing in the past week has been quite good; most of the sunny areas were turning into corn snow in the middle part of the day, and most places had a nice firm base that wouldn’t collapse under our skis. Travel was very easy for the most part, with spring-like conditions. Reports from other skiers in the area are that there is snow all the way down to the road closure gate outside of Lee Vining, with patches of open pavement on the climb up from the gate to the lower end of Ellery Lake. There are several steep drifts and piles of avalanche debris that have crossed the road that need to be traversed on the climb up the grade. On the west side, there is snow along the valley floor all the way to the Snow Creek trail, some bare ground in the sunny spots and snow in the shady areas on the climb up the switchbacks, and solid snow above the valley rim. 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 increased coyote activity in the past week, with fresh tracks encountered nearly everywhere we went. We have also seen the tracks of pine martens, weasels, squirrels, mice, and hares. Birds seen in the past week include Mountain Chickadees, Brown Creepers, Red-breasted Nuthatches, 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) Source: NPS

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