Weather: (April 9 to April 15)

High temp: 60° (April 13 and 14)

Low temp: 8° (April 10)

New Snow: 0”

Total settled snow depth: 31” as of April 16

Ski Conditions and Weather: Spring has finally arrived at Tuolumne. We had a warm and sunny week, with afternoon highs near 60 every day and overnight lows in the teens to twenties. The ice has gone off the Tuolumne River, the snowpack is quickly melting, and birds are singing everywhere.

We even saw our first wildflowers of the year today over by Parson’s Lodge, where the ground is quickly opening up. The snow has been very firm the past few mornings, but by early afternoon conditions get pretty sloppy. The latest snow conditions report from the east side is that the Tioga road (Highway 120) has been plowed from the road closure gate outside of Lee Vining up to the east end of Ellery Lake, so skiers coming in from the east side should be prepared to walk the first 4-5 miles of road above the gate before you reach the snow. Skiers coming up the Snow Creek trail from the west side report that the snow line begins just above the summer trail bridge, which is about 1/2 mile above the top of the switchbacks; everything below that level has melted out.

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: Birds seen in the past week include Mallard, Common Merganser, Killdeer, Northern Flicker, Williamson’s Sapsucker, Hairy Woodpecker, Black-backed Woodpecker, Violet-green Swallow, Steller’s Jay, Clark’s Nutcracker, Common Raven, Mountain Chickadee, Brown Creeper, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Townsend’s Solitaire, American Robin, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Dark-eyed Junco, White-crowned Sparrow, and Brewer’s Blackbird.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 up here 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)