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Weather: (March 27 to April 1) High temp: 47° (March 27) Low temp: -2° (March 31) New Snow: 4” (March 29) Total settled snow depth: 45” as of April 2 Ski Conditions and Weather: It has been a cool and cloudy week at Tuolumne, with afternoon highs in the forties and overnight lows in the teens most nights. We have had quite a few week storm systems blow through the area, leaving behind dustings of snow. The overall snowpack depth has not changed in the past week, so spring runoff is still on hold; not much melting is going on. The end of March snow surveys showed that the area is at about 100% of the 30-year average for snowpack water content, even though we only received 7 inches of snow (with 0.62” of water) the entire month of March. The latest word from the east side is that Caltrans has plowed the Tioga road (Highway 120) from the road closure gate outside of Lee Vining up to the Warren Fork of Lee Vining Creek, so skiers coming in from that direction should be prepared to walk the first 3-4 miles of road above the gate before you hit snow. Skiers coming up the Snow Creek trail from the west side report that the snow line begins just above the top of the switchbacks; everything below that level has melted out. The road to the west of Tuolumne should remain snow-covered for a few more weeks. 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: No new migrating birds have shown up in the past week; as a matter of fact most of the earlier arrivals seem to have left, probably chased back down to lower elevations due to the cold and stormy weather up high. Birds seen in the past week include the Common Raven, Mountain Chickadee, Brown Creeper, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Townsend’s Solitaire, Clark’s Nutcracker, Black-backed Woodpecker, and Hairy Woodpecker. We are still seeing quite a few Painted Lady butterflies migrating through the meadows during the afternoons. Animal tracks seen in the past week include Coyote, Pine Marten, Chickaree, Mice/Vole, and Hare. No sign of any bears yet. 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 - 4/3/08)

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