Snowing like crazy in the White Mtns!

[azbackpackr]

Snowing like crazy here in Eagar. It started about 4 pm. About 4 to 6 inches by my house, although other parts of town may have more. It's warm, so some is melting. But we are at 7,000. Up higher it should stick and stay a few days. I plan on cross country skiing at least through the weekend, weather permitting. Will go up tomorrow after the roads have been made safer.

Hiked a good part of today in South Fork--it was sunny, but very windy.

[Jim]

I wish we would get another significant storm. We haven't had anything real since the early February storm.

[azbackpackr]

The forecast said we would get no "accumulation." Glad this time they were wrong. I spent most of the winter in Yuma, and am ready for a little skiing.

[PaleoRob]

Ugh, I don't want any snow. Snow = bad for backpacking in Utah.

[JoelHazelton]

I would LOVE some rain down here, but there's no way that'll happen. Oh well.

[azdesertfather]

me too...

[Strand]

The guys who flew in from out of town were a bit shocked to have 50 degree temps at noon, and snow around 3:30PM. Not quite the "Arizona" they had expected I guess...but then, that's why we live (or lived) up here.

Azbackpackr, I had hoped to get a chance to do some hiking with you this spring/summer, but it looks likely that I will be trading in the White Mtns, for living in the shadow of Mt. Taylor. Do you know of any good trails around Mt. Taylor or in the Zunis?

[PaleoRob]

The guys who flew in from out of town were a bit shocked to have 50 degree temps at noon, and snow around 3:30PM. Not quite the "Arizona" they had expected I guess...but then, that's why we live (or lived) up here.

Azbackpackr, I had hoped to get a chance to do some hiking with you this spring/summer, but it looks likely that I will be trading in the White Mtns, for living in the shadow of Mt. Taylor. Do you know of any good trails around Mt. Taylor or in the Zunis?

Try the Acoma-Zuni trail. The Malapais is supposed to have some good trails, but might be a bit warm in the summer.

[writelots]

I wouldn't mind a little precip. down here, either - a fresh dusting on our fair peaks would keep the water resources happier until well into summer. It looks like we'll be high and dry, though. After this, no snow is welcome, as I have consecutive bp trips taking me to the high country!

[chumley]

The past couple of years we've received a couple of nice spring storms (1-2" rain in the higher terrain) in middle of April or early May which really helped delay the fire season up north. We can always hope for that again, but it's looking like all the storms are up north right now.

As for yesterday, it seems to be one of those storms that wraps around and dumps east of the mountains (Eager, Springerville qualify) ... Sunrise, Hannagan, and Baldy all only got 2-4 inches out of this. And places west of the Whites got nothing at all.

In Colorado, the eastern plains got dumped on, but the ski resorts and spots west of the divide hardly got any at all. That's not the typical pattern.

[azbackpackr]

Interesting. Since Pole Knoll, where I typically ski, is close to Sunrise, I will have to wait and see how it is when I get up there. I'm leaving in a short time, will report later. May have to go to Alpine instead!

[azbackpackr]

Oh, well, Chumley was right. We must have gotten the brunt of it right here in town. When I went to go skiing there was less snow at Pole Knoll and beyond than in Eagar. So then I went home and called the Alpine RD to see about that area, and they also had less than we did! Rats.

Strand, regarding that area, yes, the El Malpais area is good hiking in spring and fall, even sometimes in winter. Mt. Taylor for summer. I suppose people snowshoe up it in winter as well. That's about all I know. I have a friend in Tucson who drives to Mt. Taylor every year just to hike to the top, so I guess it's pretty neat. There is a road up it, but there is also a hiking trail, as I recall.

I have been hearing from a friend about a really neat trail system for mtn. biking by Gallup. And there is also the Red Rock State Park in Gallup. There are lots of areas of national forest scattered all over western New Mexico. You will just have to get maps and check them out.

[Strand]

Thanks for the feedback. I figured given the terrain and all the NF land in the area, that I'd feel right at home. If the economy weren't so screwed up, I'd stick around, but I have a bad feeling about my current place of employment.

You must have really gotten nailed in Springerville, we only had maybe an inch on the ground at the house, and we're above 7000'. Was crazy cold this AM though, my car read 0-5 degrees until I got down to 6000'.

[azbackpackr]

Well, shoot, sorry you're leaving the area so soon, but that area you're going to should be interesting. Watch the White Mtn. Independent newspaper over the next couple of weeks--they should be coming out with the Outdoors Magazine insert. I wrote an article for it on El Malpais National Monument. It's not very in depth, though, just an overview. Also, the Archaeological Soc. here is planning a field trip there on April 18 to see the Dittert Site. So I plan to tag along on that one, haven't been there yet.

Oh, and if you do mtn. bike, the friend who told me about the Gallup trails is training for a 12 hour race there. I think it's in either April or May. He said that trail system is really great, lots of loops, etc. Not sure how techy it is, as his skill level is way above mine. I'll bet you could find out about the race online, though.

[Strand]

Thanks Azbackpackr, I'm excited to explore a new area. On the way back from the interview I drove past parts of El Malpais and El Morro, and through some beautiful landscapes. Haven't been up Mt. Taylor yet, but that is one massive solitary peak and I hear there's good biking up there as well.

I need take some more archaeology/anthropology courses once we get settled in (if I have time). My college arch. prof. got me very interested in Anasazi ruins (esp. Chaco), and it's been a while since I've visited any of the larger sites. Plan to visit a local mostly unpublished petroglyph site this weekend, if it's half as good as I am told, I'm in for a treat! Will definitely take some photos.

[azbackpackr]

There are scads of those glyph sites in the White Mtns. Sadly, "unpublished" also means "unprotected." There are said to be 20,000 archaeological sites within 10 miles of Springerville.

Just one more interesting thing about this area.

Did it snow over there today? It snowed here for six hours straight, but kept melting. Now it is almost all gone. And last night the wind was so strong it blew down the great big building the Town of Eagar was constructing for raquetball courts! This building was about 3 stories tall, and looked like a big barn. It was all framed, and the plywood sheets were mostly up and the roof was on. When I drove by it this morning it looked like a big pile of shredded scrap lumber. That was our grant money, down the drain. We are supposed to be getting a new indoor pool and a rec center, too. I'll believe it when I'm swimming in it!

[Strand]

I think this site is far enough out of the way that the teenagers don't bother. I'm sure it's been looted, but the glyphs are in good shape according to a friend who was there last weekend.

We had snow this am, kept snowing until at least 10AM west of Snowflake. There was some snow still on the dirt roads up by the house (we're just east of Porter Mtn off FR 45). We had crazy winds too, this time it was a pretty constant 40mph. The weekend before this one was worse here, I was hiking Panorama and the wind on top of Twin Knoll was nuts - over 60 according to the weather channel. I avoided any areas with dead or damaged trees and headed back to the TH.

[azbackpackr]

I'll send you a pm re that site, Strand.

[PaleoRob]

Well, Grand Gulch got about 1/4" of snow that stuck Sunday night. The low at KGRS was apparently 5 degrees! Looks like the brunt of the storm was N of the rim of the Plateau, then, more Utah/Colorado oriented.

[azbackpackr]

That snow fell for about six hours on Monday, from about 6 a.m to noon, but kept melting. It accumulated, though to about 3 inches or so. Then in the afternoon, by four o'clock, it was all gone except in the shade. That is the best kind of snow for the land, it sinks in and waters everything.