esrosedotblog

WINTER!!!

There is snow!

On the top of San Gorgonio out to the northwest. This photo is the other side seen from Joshua Tree National Park.

It is a lovely mountain and is the first and last with the snowcap.

This week was very rainy and, up there, cold. So it has left winter's traces.

There is a find dusting all down the slope that is visible in the early light but that will be gone soon.

The cap, all things considered, will probably be there until May.

No sign of snow on the other big one, San Jacinto, (both near two miles high) but it's probably on the side away from us.

We went climbing San Jacinto one year, in late May, and the snow was 6-8 feet deep in drifts. You could crawl up and slide down. A lot easier than rock scrambling.

It is a nice crumbly snow. Probably the longest lasting of any we have ever seen. It has been there for 6 months. This snow is different. Crystallized with the, near daily, small melt on the surface from the sun, refrozen at night.

It is not drifty or wet like snowball snow. The crystals are big and won't compact.

This snow capping will probably be the only white stuffd we will see this winter. It may come down to about a thousand feet above the desert floor but that will be the limit.

I saw a wet and foggy snow for a few hours five or six years ago. It was a mess but pretty nonetheless.

Labels: environment, weather