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T knows snow.
This is all in our driveway, maybe 30 meters above sea level! Think of what an interesting year this will be for Mendenhall Glacier mass balance! And Eaglecrest (Juneau ski area).
Just hangin’ out with a big pile of snow:
That red house across the street has no hill between our driveway and their driveway–that’s just the piles of snow from the plowing.
We had a short gap (even blue skies this morning–it must have been really nice up at Eaglecrest), and the city snow removal tried to prepare for the next onslaught–they even came and widened our road back out so it is no longer less than one lane and almost two full lanes! (And anyone with an unbroken shovel was able to get a contract from the city to help with snow removal!)
The weather service tells us:
HEAVY SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM AST THIS AFTERNOON TO 4 AM ADT SUNDAY
Rest Of Today…Mostly cloudy in the morning…Snow developing in the afternoon. Breezy. Snow accumulation 1 to 2 inches. Highs around 35. East wind 15 to 25 mph.
Tonight…Snow…Heavy at Times….Diminishing late. Snow accumulation 5 to 9 inches. Lows around 29. Southeast wind 15 mph. Chance of snow 100 percent.
Juneau is having a great snow year. (This is already the fifth snowiest winter season in Juneau. By March 6, there was 164 point 7 inches, according to Meteorologist Nathan Foster in the Juneau Forecast Office.) The ski commute home from the UAS campus across Auke Lake, a brief ski down back loop, and then breaking trail along the Montana Creek trail over to Mendenhall River, and finally home is probably only about 5 miles, but took about 2 hours and was exhausting. What a great way to shift gears from work to home! I did this on last Friday and again Monday (UAS snow day). These pictures are from my cell phone–the only camera I had. Some of the trees back there are almost 2 meters in diameter, so it is a phenomenal ski in the woods! Here’s a few pictures, and you can check them all out at the gallery.
The happy commuter.
Looking forward down the trail.
Looking back the trail already skied.
The home stretch (looking down our street–our home is down there at the end of the road, under all the snowy trees (with an 8 foot tall pile of snow on each side of the driveway!)).
Eaglecrest has some great skiing, and some great blue sky days recently. It is cloudy today, but with that we have the hopes of another foot of snow. It has been rather cool, so there is actually *gasp* powder! We hear reports of thigh or even waist deep powder on some of the ridges hikable from Eaglecrest (as Terry pointed out, they must be short people!). At any rate, Carrie is finding her skis (?), that is gaining confidence, and she made it up to the top of Eaglecrest on the Ptarmigan chair lift (see the map here) for the first time last Sunday (a blue sky day, and the wind didn’t kick up until the afternoon, and we were up there early). WAHOO!
