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January 23, 2008 Weather: (January 16 through January 22) High temp: 47° (Jan 19) Low temp: -6° (Jan 20) New Snow: 3” (Jan 20, 22) Total settled snow depth: 43” as of January 23 Ski Conditions and Weather: It has been a mostly dry and sunny week here at the meadows. We received a little bit of snow, but our base has actually dropped due to all the sunny days. That may all change over the next couple days, as a major storm is predicted to drop a foot or more of snow on the mountains starting tonight. This week we made our first trip out to the east side since the Tioga road closed about 6 weeks ago. The road is snow covered the entire way down to the road closure gate at the bottom of the grade, which is about 6 miles west of Lee Vining. There is some bare pavement just downhill from Ellery Lake, which is where the wind tends to blow the hardest, but skiers can easily bypass those spots by using strips of snow along the road shoulder. There is a big drift just uphill of the green bridge, which tips precariously towards the chasm below, but it can be bypassed by going behind the drift alongside the cliff on the inside lane. The only other big obstacle is a large pile of avalanche debris just downhill from Blue Slide; it is about 50 feet wide and about 30 feet tall, skiers will have to climb up and over it. A lot of rocks and boulders have tumbled down off the Blue Slide area, but we saw no evidence of avalanche debris there. These conditions are of course subject to change depending on how much new snow we get, and how the winds push it around. 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: This morning we saw a Pine Marten foraging out in front of our residence. The marten stopped at the base of a tall tree and stared up at the Douglas Squirrel (AKA: Chickaree) throwing a fit from high up in the branches, but the marten apparently decided it was too much work to go up after it. This week we also we saw tracks of Coyote, Weasel, and Hare. A visitor reported seeing Mountain Lion tracks down by Tenaya Lake. Birds seen this week include Mountain Chickadee, Brown Creeper, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, Hairy Woodpecker, Townsend’s Solitaire, Clark’s Nutcracker, and Common Raven. 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 - 1/24/08)

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