HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

The telescope site (10,400') on Mount Graham has received 7 feet (!) of new snow so far this week, according to a U of A officer I spoke with this afternoon.

7 feet. Jeez. That is as tall as Shaquille O'neal. (and he is 7'1 i believe). One of my buddies who loves to backcountry snowboard had come to the San Francisco Peaks from Denver and he said for precautionary reasons had to dig himself a little hole to check the conditions and realized it was beyond unsafe to snowboard because of avalanche danger. For the hell of it all of my buds dug out the snowpack and said it was nearly 10ft deep and took 1hr.

Just a side note i really think global warming is on the way because this storm and the storm forcasted for next week both showed rain for Flagstaff. When i lived their for a while, in the winter it was usually nothing or snow, never this much forcasted rain. Anyway just a prediciton.

We finally had a pretty good snowfall night before last, of close to a foot. But it was so warm yesterday it had started melting even before the sun came up! We were supposed to get another 5-7 inches last night, but that didn't happen.

I skied up Water Canyon Road, starting with bad conditions (truck tracks melting all the way down to the roadbed in places, so that I could not ski in them, had to ski in the packed berm between the tracks. The untouched snow on the sides of the road was pretty much not skiable, as it was loose, deep powder. But once I passed the Water Canyon Trailhead of the Overland Trail, it got more fun. I tried to ski the trail a short distance, but same problem with it being too loose and deep, so went back to the packed road. Some snowmobilers roared by, leaving stink but also a good trail in their wake. I followed Water Canyon Rd. up past Elderberry Springs, up several switchbacks of road. In this area, the road has no flat spots, it is a continual grade. Coming down it, two miles of glide, was very fun! Today I'll try to drive a little further up and do it again.

I hesitate to use the word "final" here since it is still snowing along the rim this morning, but here's a list of the Snowtel sites across Arizona as measured Monday 1/18/10 at 7am, and again this morning at 6am.

Most are in the 50+" range for the week.

Keep in mind that this only measures snow depth ... not actual snowfall. Many of these sites received rain on Thursday, which compacted the snow at even a greater rate than snowfall would normally be compacted over the course of several days. I don't think it is unreasonable to estimate actual snowfall at these sites to be a foot or more greater than the difference in snow depth.

Workman Creek/6900ft: 17in --> 58in
Wildcat / 7850ft: 9in --> 45in
White Horse Lake / 7180ft: 15in --> 49in
Snowslide Canyon / 9730ft: 35in --> 86in
Promontory / 7930ft: 22in --> 73in
Mormon Mtn / 7500ft: 18in --> 65in
Maverick Fork / 9200ft: 18in --> 75in
Heber / 7640ft: 15in --> 71in
Happy Jack / 7630ft: 16in --> 53in
Hannagan Meadows / 9020ft: 20in --> 76in
Fry / 7200ft: 22in --> 56in
Coronado Trail / 8400ft: 9in --> 48in
Beaver Head / 7990ft: 12in --> 47in
Baldy / 9125ft: 16in --> 72in
Baker Butte / 7300ft: 12in --> 50in

Snowslide Canyon is in the Inner Basin and typically has the deepest reading. This is by far the most consistently deep snowpack that I've ever seen across all the stations however. I'm most impressed by the 6 FEET of snow at Promontory, which is essentially at the Rim Road at Bear Canyon Lake and 5 FEET at Workman Creek (BELOW 7k in the Sierra Anchas)!!

I just looked at the snowbowl website and you guys got to see this pictures. I also noticed on the website we have had more snow this season than last season. WOw!!

http://arizonasnowbowl.com/resort/photo_gallery.php

I went to the site but couldn't get it to work, just saw the one photo of the guy skiing Sunset.

Sorry this should work.

http://arizonasnowbowl.com/images/photo ... 2.10_1.jpg

Collapses in Flag:
http://azdailysun.com/collection_b5665c ... ml?photo=6

My internet is finally back up - the internet relay for all of Page is on Mt. Elden (a microwave tower, apparently), and it went down on Thursday night. Came back up within the last hour or two. Thank goodness, since I have classwork I need to submit!

That Bookman's collapse I heard about earlier is particularly sad because, for one thing, the roof at Hastings next door had collapsed in a previous winter, so it was a known potential problem in that strip mall, so why didn't Bookman's hire one of the many shoveling crews to get rid of the snow? My daughter's boyfriend has been spending all his spare time on a roof-shoveling crew.

For another thing, it's sad because out-of-print books are fragile when it comes to moisture, and they cannot be replaced. (I love old books.) When I go to Flag, I always hit Bookman's. In fact, I have been known to make a trip to Flag just to go to Bookman's. Drove 400 miles r/t to go to a bookstore! I take boxes of books with me, do the whole trade thing.

PageRob wrote:Collapses in Flag:
http://azdailysun.com/collection_b5665c ... ml?photo=6

My internet is finally back up - the internet relay for all of Page is on Mt. Elden (a microwave tower, apparently), and it went down on Thursday night. Came back up within the last hour or two. Thank goodness, since I have classwork I need to submit!

I can see it now as your teacher says; excuses, excuses, what Mt. Elden ate your classwork? You have obviously been spending to much time outdoors for or with those crazy HAZ folks!

I just checked out the weather and there is another storm next week that may last from Tuesday to Saturday. Snowfall amounts are no where near what they were this time but im seeing on some sites flagstaff may get 4-8 inches of snow

Yeah, I just saw that. Today, while skiing my local mountain bike trail, Murray Basin, that is right next to town, I was kind of amazed, but also lamenting that I may never get to ski it again. We just usually don't get the deep snow here in in town, especially none that lasts more than a few hours. I usually have to drive up to near Greer to ski.

Today we also drove up to Alpine. That was just wonderful, snow all over the trees, big piles of it everywhere. They finally got the power back on to parts of the area, and the grocery store was open. I took some highway and town photos, maybe will post them later when I have time, and the Murray Basin log and photos.

We've had 5.37 inches of precip this month in Flagstaff. I'm wondering if we'll make it over 6 inches for the month. This is the wettest month we've had since I moved here. I don't think I've lived any where that has gotten this much precipitation in 1 month since I left Florida after the hurricanes in 2004.

Not Bookman's! I love that place. Where will all the panhandlers go?

Where have all the panhandlers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the panhandlers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the panhandlers gone?
Gone to Barnes and Noble, every one!
Oh when will they ever learn?
Oh when will they ever learn?

plz:

From the NOAA as of Saturday:

SNOW REPORTS...SINCE MONDAY:

SUNRISE MOUNTAIN 70 INCHES (5AM MST FRI)
ARIZONA SNOWBOWL 67 TO 92 INCHES (7AM MST SAT)
GRAND CANYON N RIM 57 INCHES (5PM MST SAT) (going hiking there this week...maybe)
NORTH FLAGSTAFF 55.6 INCHES (10AM MST SAT)
GRAND CANYON S RIM 51 TO 55 INCHES (7AM MST SAT)
FLAGSTAFF AIRPORT 54.2 INCHES (11AM MST SAT)
BELLEMONT 52.7 INCHES (11AM MST SAT)
PINETOP 51.5 INCHES (5AM MST SUN)
MUNDS PARK 50.0 INCHES (9AM MST SAT)
KACHINA VILLAGE 48.0 INCHES (9AM MST SAT)
PARKS 12 MI N 43 INCHES (12PM MST SAT)
MCNARY 2 MI N 43 INCHES (7AM MST SAT)
TONTO VILLAGE 41 INCHES (8AM MST SAT)
WILLIAMS 39 TO 43 INCHES (1030AM MST FRI)
SHOW LOW 32 TO 36 INCHES (12PM MST SAT)
HEBER 26 TO 29 INCHES (7AM MST SAT)
PAYSON 11.5 INCHES (1215PM MST SAT) Payson. Seriously. Wow.
CONCHO 7.5 TO 8.5 INCHES (5AM MST SAT)

Ski Valley on Mt. Lemmon is reporting: Snow Depth....65-70” New Snow....36-40”. Not as severe as what we saw in the north country, but impressive. I was up in the Santa Ritas this weekend and couldn't believe the snow, the downed trees and the incredible beauty of a winter morning. I was supposed to be home doing yardwork. Who can do yardwork when winter wonderlands like that are out there waiting for you?!!

Sunrise actually hasn't reported their snow totals yet ... it snowed for two more days up there since their 70 inch report. Today is the 4th day in a row that they're closed because the roads to access the ski area are not yet open!

chumley wrote:Sunrise actually hasn't reported their snow totals yet ... it snowed for two more days up there since their 70 inch report. Today is the 4th day in a row that they're closed because the roads to access the ski area are not yet open!

Well, that's part of why The White Mountains and the area around Baldy/ Sunrise is Arizona's (desert areas) water shed. Its also why there is so much spruce-fir in that area, too. Well, that and the better developed monsoon they get in eastern AZ/ western NM, but that's a discussion for when this thread gets renamed back to the "coming of the 2010 monsoon" in May or so. Still, the totals on the San Francisco Peaks are impressive, and I'd take the Peaks any day over the White Mountains. Sorry, they just aren't rugged and high, even if they do have some really beautiful hikes.

azbackpackr wrote:Where have all the panhandlers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the panhandlers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the panhandlers gone?
Gone to Barnes and Noble, every one!
Oh when will they ever learn?
Oh when will they ever learn?

plz:

wow mount lemmons snow depth is the same as snowbowls. Thats amazing. Im so happy that nearly every corner of the state got alot of precip. I just looked at the sunrise webcam and they got lots, and lots, and lots of snow. The ski patrol building is nearly buried in snow up to the top.