Word: snowpacks
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Violent as these storms were, they also did some good. For the first time in recent memory, snowpack in much of the West is running well ahead of average, and that signals relief for the drought-plagued region. Even so, says NOAA drought specialist Douglas LeComte, it's too early to proclaim the long dry spell completely over. Snow is still scant in the northern Rockies and the Pacific Northwest, he notes, adding, "It will take more than one wet winter to refill the reservoirs along the Colorado River." --By J. Madeleine Nash
Scientists have documented a troubling shrinkage of the snowpack across the West, owing at least in part to the fact that rising temperatures are inexorably forcing the snow line higher. They have also found that the snowmelt is starting earlier in spring, as many as four weeks earlier in the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades. And that likewise poses a problem. Why? Snow and ice are like natural dams that hold water back during the winter months, when the risk of flooding is highest, and then melt and release it during the dry months of summer when moisture...
...Powell Ranger Station is built near the old campsite. Joni Packard, the ranger in charge, wonders why anyone would want to cross the Lolo in this weather. "The snowpack is 120% of normal, and the temperatures we are seeing now are...unusual," she says. The rangers have not been up in the high country since last fall. On our next morning we start hiking up the Wendover Ridge, the route that Toby eventually recovered. The narrow trail leads through cedars and Douglas firs, and we pass clumps of bear grass, huckleberry bushes, dogtooth violets and carpets of wild strawberry plants...
...degrees] below outside the tent. You relieve yourself however you can, in the vestibule of your tent or in a plastic bag. "It can be a little bit gross," says Erik. "But if you go outside and take your pants down, you'll have two inches of snowpack blow into your pants in about 10 seconds...
...below outside the tent. You relieve yourself however you can, in the vestibule of your tent or in a plastic bag. "It can be a little bit gross," says Erik. "But if you go outside and take your pants down, you'll have two inches of snowpack blow into your pants in about 10 seconds...