“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink” is a famous line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It describes sailors stranded at sea, surrounded by saltwater that they cannot drink. The idiom signifies being surrounded by an abundance of something useless or unusable. While we have plenty of water to drink in Bear Valley, the abundance of water in the meadow has been this winter's theme.
A brief hydrologic recap began with a mid-October storm that brought over a foot of fresh snow and prompted many locals to get better prepared for winter. Then, an extended period of warm, dry weather lasted well into December. As the Christmas holiday began, a series of storms arrived, bringing high elevation snow and rain in the meadow. Matters looked bleak at 7000 ft. before temperatures dropped on Christmas Eve, and the meadow received enough snow to open groomed trails and tubing on December 27th. A Christmas miracle indeed!
Storms returned to the Sierras on New Year's Day, bringing “mixed precipitation” and once again forcing trail closures. Snain (snow + rain) eventually turned to snow, and the last few days of the busiest period of the season were active with cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and tubing. The skiing was good!
Mild weather prevailed for the rest of January and the first half of February. Fortunately, there was enough snow to open many trails, and the grooming conditions were exceptional due to cold temperatures and the low sun angle. The skiing remained good!
Another big storm arrived in the middle of the President's holiday weekend, but this time it was cold. We had to close trails on Presidents' Day and several days thereafter, but we needed the snow, so no complaints. Then after 100 inches of snow over 4 days, you guessed it, ... rain. It wasn’t nearly as much precipitation as our neighbors to the north in Lake Tahoe received, but the effects on the snow were profound. I’ve never seen so much snow be reduced so quickly. In the end, we got a solid couple of feet, which was a vast improvement to the trail conditions pre-storm. The skiing returned to good!
Now it’s the beginning of March, and we are entering another mild stretch of weather. New and old techniques have been used to manage this mild winter so far, and we have a few new tricks up our sleeves, but one constant remains: water is a dominant force in our landscape.
Cheers!
Paul, Art, and Art’s granddaughter pick’n & pluck’n at Reba’s Meadow Cafe
Brennan & Mikela enjoy the natural, but rare ice in the Bear Valley meadow
